Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday 700 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Kentucky since Monday afternoon.
Those cases increase the number of virus victims in the state to 32,197. Over the last 25 days, Kentucky has had 13,368 cases of the virus confirmed, an average of 535 per day.
Of the new cases, 18 are children five-years-old and younger, including two Jefferson County infants, ages two months and six months. Kentucky now has had 314 children in that age group diagnosed with the virus over the last 22 days (14.3 per day).
Although the 700 cases reported Tuesday more than doubled Monday’s total, Beshear struck a slightly optimistic tone on the direction of the commonwealth regarding flattening the curve.
“We hope to see the trend we think we had over the past couple weeks continue, which is a slow of the growth,” the governor said. “While today we have a higher number than we did at this time last week, we believe there is a general leveling off; though today there are more cases than last week.”
Officials reported seven new deaths Tuesday, raising the total to 751 (2.3 percent fatality rate) Kentuckians lost to the virus.
The deaths reported Monday include a 53-year-old man from Calloway County; a 70-year-old man from Daviess County; two women, ages 45 and 69, and an 81-year-old man from Jefferson County; a 50-year-old man from Kenton County; and a 95-year-old woman from Ohio County.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,851 (12 percent) victims have been hospitalized, with 638 patients currently in a hospital. To date, 1,232 (3.8 percent) people have been treated in ICU, with 135 victims currently in intensive care.
The positivity rate rose only slightly to 5.24 percent on Tuesday, after a positivity rate of 5.18 percent on Monday.
At least 8,406 (26.1 percent) people have recovered from the virus in Kentucky, and 650,093 tests have been administered.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
