Beshear says 1,018 new cases on Tuesday ‘ought to be a wake-up call.’ Most cases in one day since March 6.

covid-19-pandemic-logo-03-16
covid-19-pandemic-logo-03-16

On Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear reported the second highest number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases diagnosed since the pandemic began more than six months ago, and the most new cases since March 6.

Beshear said 1,018 cases were confirmed in Kentucky over the previous 24 hours, raising Kentucky’s COVID-19 victim count to 67,856.

Twenty of Kentucky’s 120 counties reported (at least) double-digit cases on Tuesday, led by Jefferson County’s 226 cases and Fayette County’s 143. Nearby Warren County reported 29 new cases, with Barren County reporting 28, while bordering Hardin County had 22 new cases confirmed.

Officials said 157 of the new cases are children 18 and younger, with 27 of those children five-years-old and younger.

“I said yesterday I believe we’re at the start of a new escalation,” Beshear said. “We’re certainly seeing that in today’s numbers. That means we’ve got to work harder. This is a war and we’ve won many battles, but we can’t walk away from the battlefield. I really need your help. Right now, moving into the fall, has the potential to be the most dangerous time we have seen in Kentucky. But it doesn’t have to be, because we know there is a vaccine in our future, we just have to get to the point where we can prove that it’s effective and deploy it to enough people. Are we willing to do what it takes to protect one another until that point in time? … This ought to be a wake-up call.”

Eight new deaths were reported, raising the commonwealth’s death toll to 1,170 (1.7 percent).

The deaths reported Tuesday include a 93-year-old woman from Bell County; an 86-year-old man from Bullitt County; a 77-year-old man and an 85-year-old woman from Floyd County; a 71-year-old woman from Henderson County; a 68-year-old man from Hickman County; and two women, ages 86 and 87, from Kenton County.

Kentucky’s rolling seven-day positivity rate dropped for the sixth consecutive day as it checked in at 4.24 percent, down from Monday’s 4.41 percent.

Since the onset of the pandemic, 5,250 (7.7 percent) patients have been hospitalized, with 589 people currently in a hospital, the most hospitalized coronavirus patients in the last several weeks, and an increase of 82 hospitalizations since Monday. To date, 1,520 (2.2 percent) victims have been treated in an ICU, with 129 people currently in intensive care.

At least 11,792 (17.4 percent) Kentuckians have recovered from the virus, and 1,446,385 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the state.

By Ken Howlett, News Director

Contact Ken at ken@k105.com