By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
The number of new cases of COVID-19 fell on Sunday as did the number of deaths, while Kentucky’s positivity rate continued to rise.
There were 366 new cases reported to state public health officials, compared to 505 on Saturday, and 704 on Friday, ending the week in a decline from the previous week.
It should be noted that many labs are closed or do not report their test results on the weekend, which is one reason why the numbers are quite often lower on Saturdays and Sundays than during the remainder of the week.
This brings the total number of positive cases in Kentucky to 433,085 since the start of the pandemic on March 2020.
Only five counties reported ten or more new cases on Sunday: Jefferson had 87, Fayette 58, Franklin 11, with Clark and Daviess reporting 10 each.
There were eight deaths from local health department reports, plus one from the ongoing audit of death certificates issued since last fall, making Sunday’s total nine and raising the number of Kentuckians lost due to the coronavirus to 6,250. The ages and locations of the latest victims was not available.
Kentucky’s positivity rate on Sunday rose above the three percent mark for the first time in several days, standing at 3.08%, based on a seven-day rolling average. This was up from 2.99% on Saturday and Friday’s 2.79%.
The number of Kentuckians hospitalized rose by nine on Sunday to 379. Of them, 92 were in the ICU, the same as Saturday, while 51 were on a ventilator, up from 48 the previous day.
On a positive note, 1,556,419 Kentuckians have now had at least one dose of the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which only requires one. While there are already well over 500 vaccination sites across Kentucky, the state’s largest one opens on Monday at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville.
Kentucky finished the week with two counties in the green, six in the red zone, and the remainder either yellow or orange.
Taking a wider view of the pandemic, Johns Hopkins University reported on Sunday that the number of COVID-19 cases is now 135,761,557, along with 2,932,239 deaths. In the United States, there have now been 31,189,567 positive cases of the coronavirus and 562,059 deaths.
To see the state’s full daily COVID-19 report, which includes such information as the red zone counties and red zone recommendations, testing locations, vaccine sites and availability, the weekly White House Coronavirus Task Force reports for Kentucky, executive orders, revised travel guidance from the CDC and other information on the state’s pandemic response, go to kycovid19.ky.gov.
The Governor’s next scheduled press briefing will be Monday at 4 p.m., when he is expected to discuss what his goal is that needs to be met, in order to lift the capacity restrictions at bars and restaurants, and allow venues to have up to 1,000 people in attendance.
