COVID ‘steadily decreasing’ in Kentucky, Beshear says

Guidance could change within the next few weeks

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – Gov. Andy Beshear said on Thursday that the effects of COVID-19 in Kentucky continue to decline, leading him to continue saying the state may change their guidance within a month, if the trend continues.

Although the weekly graph of cases won’t be available until next Monday, the governor pointed out there was good news in the daily hospital census.

“It is steadily decreasing.  Still higher than we like but look at how much it has moved since just weeks ago, when we were near the highest amount of people in the hospital with COVID.  We’re seeing that as well in our ICU numbers.  Thankfully they did not get as high as delta with omicron.  What this shows is we have a good downward trajectory.”

“Again, we believe that by the middle of March, and hopefully even earlier, we will be out of the red, probably even through the orange into the yellow.  This time, I hope we hit green, which is something we didn’t do between delta and omicron.”

His message to Kentuckians: “Be excited, be hopeful, be optimistic that we’re moving the right way.  But be patient and let us get there.  We are really close.”

Beshear noted that almost all the COVID deaths in Kentucky are those who are vaccinated, or only partially vaccinated, specifically, 82.3%.  Among hospitalizations, it’s 84.4%, and for all cases, 73.4% are unvaccinated, or only partially vaccinated.

“With us facing the most infectious disease that we have seen at least since the measles, that’s really incredible,” he said.  “That is a testament as to how amazing these vaccines have been, not only when they were created, but how they stand up, even to the variants.”

The governor is expected to issue a complete update on COVID-19 during a Monday afternoon press conference.