The Grayson County Health Department (GCHD) has released a COVID-19 update.
Since the last update on September 8, the health department said 183 new cases of the virus have been confirmed, giving the county 548 cases diagnosed since September 1. The new cases raise the total number of COVID cases in Grayson County since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,003.
There was an increase in COVID deaths, as the GCHD reports 78 “reported” deaths in the county, with 61 “verified” COVID-related deaths. Seventeen deaths are awaiting confirmation from state health officials (on September 8, 11 deaths were awaiting confirmation).
There are 439 active COVID cases in the county, down 80 from September 8. Currently, 29 people are hospitalized.
The county’s incident rate, which has hovered in the 150s and 160s over the last few weeks, checked in at 137.3 on Monday, which is the highest rate of occurrence in western Kentucky and the 13th highest incident rate in Kentucky.
Rockcastle County, with an incident rate of 201.9, leads the state in rate of infection, with Perry County (192.5) not far behind.
Grayson County’s vaccination rate for all residents, according to the health department, is 46.7 percent, and 57.6 for residents 18-years-old and older.
Kentucky’s vaccination rate among all residents is 59 percent, while the vaccination rate stands at 69 percent for residents 12 and older, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
Report: Grayson Co. has one of nation’s highest rate of infections
The New York Times (subscription only) on Monday published a story that said six Kentucky counties are among the top 10 counties in the U.S. in COVID rate of occurrence.
With COVID numbers changing daily, the graph published by the newspaper (below) is no longer up-to-date, but for a county to be anywhere near the neighborhood of having the highest rate of infection in the entire country is obviously troubling.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
