COVID-19 cases continued to see a steady decline in the Commonwealth last week, to some of the lowest levels experienced since last summer.
In his weekly Monday update, Governor Andy Beshear noted testing positivity has declined from 9.10% two weeks ago, to just 6.04% this week, while new cases have trimmed down from 13,305 to 12,010 over the same stretch.
In-patient hospital stays have declined 20-plus percent over the last two weeks, too, and Beshear added that ICU and ventilator use have seen the same steady declination.
Under the CDC’s new “COVID Community Levels” mapping, which accounts for both the spread and hospital capacity of counties, more than half of Kentucky is either in the “green” or “yellow” spectrum of coronavirus concern — meaning lighter restrictions in both outdoor and indoor settings can be recommended.
Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said the downward trend is a welcome sight, heading into year three of an ongoing pandemic.
A myriad of factors are playing their part in COVID-19 guidance changes, namely as vaccines become more prevalent, boosters become more available, testing becomes more accessible, and at-home treatments come over-the-counter.
Stack said several “pill” treatments are already on shelves in pharmacies, with other treatment options on the way.
Also, instead of reporting COVID-19 data in these three-day packets, Stack said Kentucky’s officials will be switching to weekly reporting models — not so dissimilar to other states in the country.
By Monday afternoons, Kentucky’s COVID-19 dashboard will updated with previous week data sets that can be used by county and regional officials.
And as of this Monday, Crittenden, Livingston and Lyon counties remained in the red, Hopkins, Christian, Caldwell, Trigg, Todd, Marshall and Logan counties were in the yellow, and Calloway was in the green.
