Statewide Testing Positivity Rate: 3.25%.
Deaths: We are sad to report 1 new death today. We have experienced a total of 426 deaths resulting in a 1.92% mortality rate (about 1 in 52) among known cases. This compares with a 1.47% mortality rate at the state level and a 1.78% mortality rate at the national level. Our hearts and prayers go out to all the families and friends who have lost loved ones.
Hospitalizations: We presently have 8 cases in the hospital. This is 6 less than what we reported yesterday. We have had a total of 1,230 hospitalizations resulting in a 5.55% hospitalization rate (about 1 in 18) among known cases. The state hospitalization rate is 4.94%. The latest data shows that 86.67% of Lake Cumberland’s ICU beds are filled, and 20% of ventilator capacity is being utilized.
Total (Cumulative) Cases: The Lake Cumberland District has experienced a total of 22,144 cases since the onset of the outbreak. This means that 10.6% of our total population has been a confirmed case. However, we do not know how many additional people may have had COVID-19 and were either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and never tested. Of our total cases, 0.48% are reinfections, and 1.18% contracted the virus after having received at least 1 dose of the vaccine.
Released (Not contagious) Cases: We released 49 cases today from isolation. Released cases include: Adair: 3; Casey: 5; Green: 4; McCreary: 1; Pulaski: 18; Russell: 8; and, Taylor: 10. In all, we have released 97.4% of our total cases.
Active (Current) Cases: Taking into account deaths and releases, our active cases decreased by 16 more than the new cases we added today. This leaves us with 146 active cases in our district across all 10 of our district’s 10 counties. On 12/10/2020 we were at our peak number of active cases, 1,343.
Where Did Cases Visit Prior to Isolation: The most common places cases visited prior to isolation are (in descending order): Family, Businesses, Schools, and Medical Facilities. Of our active cases, 4% can not be tied back to another known case (community-spread cases).
New Cases: We report that our total case count has increased by 34 today: Adair: 10; Casey: 4; Green: 1; McCreary: 6; Pulaski: 7; Russell: 1; and, Taylor: 5. Our current new case growth rate is: 1.001. This means our total case count is projected to double every 537.33 days. The most new cases we ever added in a single day was on 12/30/2020 when we added 301 cases. Today’s new cases include:
Adair: A 36-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 6-year-old female who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
Adair: A 8-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
Adair: A 11-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 28-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 8-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 18-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 8-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
Adair: A 5-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 8-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
Adair: A 6 months -old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 2-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Adair: A 31-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Casey: A 18-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Casey: A 18-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Casey: A 14-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Casey: A 67-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Green: A 48-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Green: A 60-year-old female who is released, Resolved;
McCreary: A 35-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
McCreary: A 38-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
McCreary: A 4-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
McCreary: A 8-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
McCreary: A 56-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
McCreary: A 51-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Pulaski: A 32-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Pulaski: A 63-year-old female who is released, Resolved;
Pulaski: A 47-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Pulaski: A 66-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Pulaski: A 62-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Pulaski: A 6-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
Pulaski: A 2-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Russell: A 66-year-old female who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Taylor: A 14-year-old male who is self-isolated, Asymptomatic;
Taylor: A 58-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Taylor: A 19-year-old male who is released, Asymptomatic;
Taylor: A 44-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Taylor: A 13-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
Wayne: A 27-year-old male who is self-isolated, still symptomatic;
A close look at the numbers today may appear that our Adair, Green, and Wayne totals are off. This is because we deleted 3 cases in Green that did not meet the case definition, 1 case in Green that did not meet the case definition, and we removed 1 duplicate entry from Wayne.
The death we report today is a 74-year-old female from Taylor who had been hospitalized.
We report more new cases today than for the same time period last week. This caused our districtwide 7-day-average-incidence rate of new cases per 100,000 to go up. This begins another week of several weeks’ worth of increasing cases for our area. This is not surprising since our COVID-19 vaccine uptake rate is lower than the state average in all 10 of our district’s 10 counties. Again, this serves as a reminder that the pandemic is not over, and that our citizens need to take the vaccine. The vaccine is very effective. Of our almost 18,000 new cases since early January, only 1.18% of them had taken at least 1 dose of the vaccine. This means that almost 99% of our new cases since the vaccine started becoming available were among people who had not taken any doses of the vaccine. The statistics are even better for those who have been fully vaccinated.
Despite COVID-19 vaccines being abundantly available in our district, and despite Lake Cumberland’s death rate (1.92%) from COVID-19 being higher than the state average (1.47%), and the national average (1.78%); and, despite our hospitalization rate (5.56%) being higher than the state average (4.94%), our district is showing a particularly poor uptake rate for the COVID-19 vaccine. Of the total population of the state, the federal COVID-19 vaccination dashboard shows that 42% of Kentuckians have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, every county in our district is below the state average. For our district, here is where we are:
Taylor – 33.81%
Pulaski – 32.42%
Russell – 31.39%
Green – 28.26%
Cumberland – 27.13%
Wayne – 25.55%
Adair – 25.27%
Casey – 23.01%
Clinton – 21.93%
McCreary – 20.23%
Our 7-day average incidence chart is now showing 0 counties in the “green-on-track” range; 5 counties in the “yellow-community-spread” category, Clinton, Cumberland, Green, McCreary, and Wayne; and 5 counties in the “orange-accelerated” range of community-spread: Adair, Casey, Pulaski, Russell, and Taylor. We are thankful to not have any “red-critical” counties now. Keep in mind, some of our 7-day-incidence data will be skewed over the next few days as we are reconciling our data against the state data.
Don’t forget that at both the world level and in several states, we are seeing sharp increases in new COVID-19 cases. Therefore, please do not assume that the pandemic is completely behind us and take the vaccine as soon as you can. Also, until the vaccine is widely available, and a significant percentage of the population has taken it, let’s all do our part in slowing the spread of COVID-19 by wearing our face coverings, avoiding crowds (especially in confined spaces), social distancing when around others, increasing our hand hygiene, increasing our general sanitation, and by avoiding the touching of our faces.
The Lake Cumberland area has experienced 22,144 cumulative confirmed cases and there have been 449,158 confirmed COVID-19 cases across all 120 Kentucky Counties as of today (this includes 449,107 statewide plus 51 cases in Lake Cumberland not in the Governor’s/Department for Public Health’s daily report). Regardless of the confirmed case count for any Lake Cumberland County, we believe COVID-19 to be widespread. The LCDHD is working tirelessly, including nights and weekends, to identify and contact all those with whom any positive case may have come into close contact, and to follow up with positive cases when ready to be released. Additionally, we are striving diligently to follow up on business-related complaints regarding noncompliance with the COVID-19 guidance. We are also working with any community partner that requests assistance for prevention or post-exposure planning/response. Finally, we are working with all community partners regarding vaccination planning.
