COVID LOSES STEAM IN KENTUCKY AGAIN

POSITIVITY RATE IS DOWN BELOW 30% AGAIN

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – After seeing four straight weeks of huge spikes in the number of new COVID-19 cases in Kentucky due to the proliferation of the omicron variant, Kentucky saw a substantial decline for the seven-day period that ended Sunday, Jan. 30.

During a Capitol press conference Monday afternoon, Gov. Andy Beshear said, “Cases were down versus the week before for the first time in a long time, but also down was our positivity rate, which had reached over 33%. It’s now down to 28.49%.”

He noted, “Near the end of last week, at the very least we thought the increase was slowing. But what we hope we are seeing is a cresting and hopefully the beginning of the downward slope in omicron cases. Certainly, as we look at other places that got hit with omicron before we did, we have seen a steep decline in cases.”

Beshear did temper the news a little bit. “Last week was still the second highest number of cases that we’ve ever had, and it was more than double the peak in delta. But the trajectory is a good sign, and provided we continue to see declines this week, we would expect even greater ones next week.  We’re not out of the woods, but if we can hold on and do the right thing for two to three weeks, we hope that it will drop as quickly as it rose.”

There were 74,376 new cases reported for the seven-day period ending Jan. 30, compared to the record total of 81,473 the previous week, which represents a nine percent drop.

According to data released Monday afternoon by the Kentucky Department for Public Health, there have now been 1,160,558 cases of COVID-19, since the start of the pandemic, along with 12,960 deaths.       

Hospitalizations remain at near record levels due to COVID, according to the governor, “but, it looks like we are starting a decline, and that would be wonderful. It’s going to take a little time to bear that out, but you want to believe there is light at the end of this tunnel or this surge.”

He added, “All of us think we are at least close to turning the corner in the right way. One of the reasons is that more people are getting vaccinated and are getting boosted.”