On Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear said that over half of Kentucky’s 120 counties have a coronavirus (COVID-19) positivity test rate over five percent.
Beshear said 63 Kentucky counties have a positivity rate (the percentage of all COVID-19 tests performed that are positive) greater than five percent, with 20 Kentucky counties posting positivity rates above 10 percent, which the White House refers to as the “red zone.”
The 20 counties in the red zone include nearby Hardin, Warren, Bullitt, and Barren counties, as well as Green, Jefferson, Scott, Shelby, Fulton, Calloway, Bell, Knox, Henry, Spencer, Logan, Lewis, Clay, Hickman, Powell, and Wayne counties.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says about the positivity rate:
The higher the percent positive is, the more concerning it is. As a rule of thumb, however, one threshold for the percent positive being “too high” is 5%. For example, the World Health Organization recommended in May that the percent positive remain below 5% for at least two weeks before governments consider reopening. If we are successful in bringing coronavirus transmission under control, this threshold might be lowered over time. To further relax social restrictions and allow very large gatherings or meetings of people traveling from many different areas, for example, we would want a lower threshold.
Kentucky’s positivity rate stands at 5.48 percent, a slight down-tick from Monday’s rate.
COVID-19 update
Beshear reported on Tuesday that 627 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Kentucky between Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
Those cases increase the state’s COVID-19 victim count to 40,299.
Officials said 14 of the new cases are children five-years-old and younger, including a one-month-old baby in Pike Co. Over the last 36 days, Kentucky has had 582 children in that age group diagnosed with the virus, an average of 16.1 per day.
“Today, this is about what we have seen on other Tuesdays, going back three or four weeks,” the governor said. “I believe, again, first we’ve got to plateau, then we can get on that downward slope. Then we’re going to be in a much safer place to do things. We can’t tell you how long we’re going to be fighting it, but we’re going to get through it and we’re going to win. To do it and to do it right, we’re going to have to listen to and follow some wisdom such as this Chinese proverb: ‘One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.’
“We are all desperate to get back to our old lives,” Beshear added, “but if we are not patient, we put the lives of other people on the line, we put the health of our economy on the line. And we potentially threaten what we love the most – our children – and their well-being. At a time like this, our patience is being tested. My question is, are we going to pass that test?”
Officials reported 12 new deaths on Tuesday, raising the commonwealth’s death toll to 830 (2.1 percent fatality rate).
The deaths reported include a 44-year-old woman from Carter County; a 67-year-old woman from Daviess County; an 89-year-old man from Graves County; two women, ages 72 and 83, and two men, ages 72 and 80, from Jefferson County; a 67-year-old woman from Letcher County; a 75-year-old woman from Oldham County; a 72-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man from Perry County; and an 84-year-old woman from Washington County.
Since the onset of the pandemic, 4,252 (10.6 percent) people have been hospitalized, with 622 patients currently in a hospital. To date, 1,320 (3.3 percent) victims have been treated in ICU, with 147 people currently in intensive care and on ventilators.
At least 9,223 (22.9 percent) patients have recovered, and 760,022 COVID-19 tests have been administered in the state.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
