By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
There were mixed results in the weekly COVID-19 report released on Monday by the Kentucky Department for Public Health, as some of the indicators rose, while others experienced declines.
The number of new cases reported to state public health officials for the period ending November 20 was 6,746, a sharp increase over the 3,570 on the previous week’s report. The number of new cases in those 18 and under also rose compared to last week, from 555 to 969.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky now stands at is now 1,631,144 since the first one was reported in Harrison County back in March 2020.
Five counties reported 100 or more new cases during the past week. The top 10 counties over were: Jefferson had 806, Fayette 208, Kenton 142, Hardin 123, Warren 122, Boone 92, Campbell 67, Bullitt 63, Daviess 63, and Nelson with 53.
Public health officials have said the number of positive cases is likely undercounted, since many people who have a positive result from a home test do not report it to state public health officials, if they do not require medical treatment or were asymptomatic.
New number of new COVID-related deaths during the past week was 49, two more than last week’s 47. There have now been 17,363 deaths in Kentucky since the start of the pandemic.
Kentucky’s positivity rate, which measures the number of cases from all tests performed except those from home testing kits, stood at 6.73%, down from last week’s 7.29%. This marks the third straight week of dropping positivity rates.
The hospital census was another category seeing a decline during the past week. Monday’s report shows 250 Kentuckians hospitalized with COVID. Of them, 35 were in intensive care and 14 on a ventilator. Last week there were 310 in the hospital, with 42 in the ICU and 19 on a ventilator.
For more details on Kentucky’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, community levels and more, go to the state’s website, http://kycovid19.ky.gov/.
