Limited Sunday report keeps the coronavirus in Ky. on a plateau

By Al Cross Published August 3, 2020 CORONAVIRUS, HEALTH POLICY, YOUR HEALTH

Kentucky Health News chart; for a larger version, click on it.
—–

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Kentucky reported 463 new cases of the novel coronavirus Sunday, a little more evidence that the state has settled into another plateau, but one much higher than the one it was on a month ago.

“We appear to be seeing what we all hope is a plateau in the alarming growth of coronavirus cases in the commonwealth,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a press release. “It shows that wearing a mask, social distancing and not traveling to virus hot spots is working. We need to see this trend continue to avoid having to make more hard choices and sacrifices.”

Beshear has also cited a decline in the percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus. He did not report on testing or hospitalizations Sunday.

Reports are limited on Sundays, when fewer testing laboratories report to the state, and numbers are typically lower. But the record number of daily new cases, 979, was set on a Sunday, July 19.

Health Commissioner Steven Stack said in the news release that he was “cautiously optimistic we have blunted our steep covid-19 escalation with the mask requirement, restriction of gatherings to 10 or fewer people, bar closings and restaurant capacity restrictions. This is a prolonged challenge, though.”

The state reported two more deaths from covid-19 Sunday, a 56-year-old man from Oldham County and a 70-year-old woman from Muhlenberg County.

Counties with five or more new cases on Sunday’s daily report were Jefferson, 91; Fayette, 80; Warren, 23; Kenton, 20; Pulaski, 19; Calloway, 14; Daviess, 13; Boone and Jessamine, 12 each; Oldham, nine; Graves, seven; Campbell, six; and Boyd, Casey, Franklin, Russell, Scott and Shelby, five each.

On the national level, the response coordinator of the White House Corinavirus Task Force warned that the virus is now widespread across the nation. She said, “To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”