Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday that 532 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) were confirmed in Kentucky over the previous 24 hours.
Those cases increase the COVID-19 victim count in the state to 28,126.
Over the last 18 days, the commonwealth had 9,254 cases of virus confirmed, an average of 514 per day.
Of the newly reported cases, 21 are children five-years-old and younger, giving the commonwealth 200 children in that age group diagnosed with coronavirus over the last 15 days (13.3 per day). Included in the new cases are a two-month-old from Madison County and seven-month-old from Graves County, Beshear said.
The positivity rate dropped slightly from 5.58 percent on Monday to 5.08 percent on Tuesday.
“Today’s update gives us hope that we may be seeing a new plateau or stabilization, although it is too early to come to that conclusion,” the governor said. “It’s also the first time the positivity rate has gone down in four days. My hope is that the facial covering requirement is starting to kick in and help.”
Beshear continued by saying: “We are at war with this virus. It has come to take the lives of our people, it has tried to turn everything about our lives upside down, and it’s our job to fight back. This is a war fought by every single one of us. Every single individual’s actions matter.”
The governor again warned that without everyone complying with safety requirements – including social distancing, wearing face coverings and avoiding travel to virus hotspots – Kentuckians risk squandering the hard work already accomplished, and face the devastation being experienced by some other states.
“Today, again, tough news for Florida and Texas: Florida setting a record for deaths in a single day and in Texas, every six minutes and 16 seconds they are losing someone to COVID-19,” the governor said. “But again, we are at a point in time where we have the ability to stop this before it gets anywhere close to what we’ve seen in those states.”
Officials reported 10 new deaths Tuesday, raising the total to 719 (2.6 percent fatality rate) Kentuckians lost to the virus.
The deaths reported Tuesday include a 74-year-old woman from Butler County, that county’s fifteenth COVID-19-related death; an 84-year-old man from Fayette County; two women, ages 86 and 87, and an 82-year-old man from Jefferson County; two women, ages 89 and 101, and an 83-year-old man from Logan County; a 37-year-old man from Lyon County; and a 73-year-old woman from Oldham County.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,279 (11.7 percent) victims have been hospitalized, with 584 people currently in a hospital. To date, 1,132 (4 percent) patients have been treated in ICU, with 115 victims currently in intensive care.
At least 7,470 (26.6 percent) people have recovered from the disease in Kentucky, and 599,251 tests have been administered in the state.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
