Rate of new cases steady in county after businesses reopen

As restrictions continue to be loosened under Gov. Andy Beshear’s Health yat Work initiative, the increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases continues to remain steady throughout the county.

Over the past seven days (May 27 to June 2), the Green River District Health Department reported a total of 20 new cases in Ohio County. This includes the 15 reported May 27. That total, however, could be the result of some labs being closed over the Memorial Day weekend thus delaying the test results. As of Tuesday’s press release, there have been a total of 170 positive COVID-19 test results in the county.

The total number of positive cases in Ohio County for over a seven- day-period one month ago was 29.

Early last week, Beshear said the number of cases across the Commonwealth appeared to be on the decline. Numbers over the past four days show that trend could be changing. On Friday, there were 283 newly confirmed cases with 247 on Saturday and 214 on Monday. Those days were the first time the numbers had reached over 200 since mid-May. Sunday and Tuesday’s numbers dropped back down to under 200 with 131 and 155 respectively.

Beshear said those numbers do not necessarily mean the state is seeing a spike in cases.

“We have been reviewing the date from (Friday) and nearly half of the new cases were from long-term care, accounting for more than 37% and another 9% of cases were from congregate care settings, mainly the federal prison in Lexington.”

He said the state will continue review the data to see if the pattern is continuing. He said Tuesday he does believe that the state is still in a plateau if not a decline in new cases.

The weekly number of cases have dropped since the state’s spike the week of May 4 when there was 1,603 new cases reported. Since that time the numbers have continued to slightly decline or stay relatively the same each week: Week of May 11 - 1,340; May 18 - 1,036 and May 25 - 1,040.

“It doesn’t mean we are out of the woods ... but it is really good news,” Beshear said last week.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Kentucky had a total of 10,046 confirmed cases and 439 deaths. The state had administered over 240,000 tests statewide. More than one-third of Kentuckians who tested positive for the virus have recovered.

GRDHD reported on Tuesday that 125 patients have recovered from the virus. One is currently hospitalized. There have not been any deaths in the county as a result of the virus.

In the United States there have been over 1.85 million confirmed cases with over 107,000 deaths. Worldwide there have been over 6 million confirmed cases and over 371,000 deaths.