By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Friday’s big drop in new cases and deaths in Kentucky due to COVID-19 reversed course on Saturday, with big increases in both categories.
There were 3,795 new cases reported to state public health officials on Saturday, almost the same number as on Thursday, bringing the pandemic total to 344,568.
Five counties reported over 100 cases. Jefferson had 603, Bullitt 529, Fayette 209, Warren 123, and Kenton 116. The rest of the top ten counties were Hardin and Oldham with 93 each, Daviess 87, Boone 85, and Campbell 76.
There were 49 COVID-19 related deaths on Saturday, raising the total to 3,386 Kentuckians who have lost their lives due to the coronavirus. A breakdown by age and county was not available on Saturday.
There are 1,604 Kentuckians currently hospitalized with COVID. Of them, 403 are in the ICU and 209 are on a ventilator.
Some good news is that the state’s positivity rate has remained below 11% for a second straight day, currently standing at 10.56%, based on a seven-day rolling average.
According to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, through Friday, 267,577 total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Kentucky. The first dose has already been administered to 248,127 people, while another 19,450 have had both doses.
At this point, 223,867 doses have been administered through the state program for Kentuckians in priority groups 1A and 1B. Another 43,710 have gone through the long-term care facilities program, which is handled by Walgreen’s and CVS, as part of the federal government’s contract with the two pharmacy chains.
The state program has now received 345,800 doses and the long-term care facilities program has received 120,900 doses.
For the week of Jan. 25, the state expects to receive more than 56,000 doses, 28,275 of the Pfizer version and 27,900 of the Moderna vaccine.
Earlier this week, Gov. Beshear sent a letter to the federal government, asking them to double Kentucky’s allocation, and State Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says there have been enough providers sign up to allow the state to handle 250,000 vaccinations per week.
Details on locations and how to sign up for the Kroger regional drive-thru vaccination sites for people in groups 1A, 1B and 1C, are expected to be released on Jan. 28, with the sites opening up on Feb. 1.
To view the full daily COVID-19 report for Kentucky, which includes such information as the red zone counties and red zone recommendations, testing locations, the weekly White House Coronavirus Task Force reports for Kentucky, executive orders, vaccine distribution, and other information on the state’s pandemic response, go to kycovid19.ky.gov.
Gov. Beshear’s next scheduled live press briefing will be Monday afternoon at 4, although his office is expected to send out a daily report on Sunday.
With additional vaccines coming next week, those Kentuckians in “1C” should be getting vaccines starting Feb. 1:
