Kentucky in good place with pandemic, Beshear says

Hospital report continues in a positive direction

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – While cases of COVID-19 have seen a slight uptick this week, there are several other measurements that show Kentucky is in a good place at this point of the pandemic, according to Gov. Andy Beshear and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The governor said during a Capitol press conference that the positivity rate has also risen slightly for the second straight week, but the hospital report continues in a positive direction.

“While leveling out, it is incredibly low,” he said. “This is a very good sign, when we factor in all the additional things that we are looking at now, especially hospitalizations with the variant no longer being as deadly as delta, or even the original version, hospitalizations are still as low as they were last summer.”

He pointed out ICU usage is even better. “Maybe the best it’s been since the pandemic really took hold.  Ventilators for COVID patients, again, even lower than they were last summer.”

Beshear added, “We’re going to keep taking a look at where the number of cases and the positivity rate are, but we are not as concerned because of where the hospitalization graphs are, which is such a good place.”

The reports, which are updated every Monday, show COVID hospitalizations at 176, with 20 people in the ICU and nine on a ventilator. That is a possible indicator that while there are more new cases being reported, they are milder.

The CDC’s recently revamped Community Level map, which is updated every Friday afternoon, has all 120 Kentucky counties in the green, meaning a low level of infection on their green, yellow and red categories.  Last week there were three yellow counties, Floyd, Johnson, and Magoffin, but all three reached the green level, as of Friday.