State’s positive test rate keeps rising, to 12.45%, and 3,232 new virus cases are the most Kentucky has ever reported on a Sunday

New York Times map, adapted by Kentucky Health News; for the interactive version, click here. County infection rates including Sunday’s updated data are on the state’s daily report, available here.
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By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

The pandemic in Kentucky kept accelerating Sunday.

The state reported 3,232 new cases of the novel coronavirus, the most ever on a Sunday, a day reporting tends to slack because of weekend schedules. The previous record for a Sunday was set last Sunday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases, the most common measure of the pandemic, reached 3,854, setting a new record for the second straight day.

On the state’s map color-coding counties by their seven-day infection rates, every county but Hickman was in red, averaging 25 or more daily cases per 100,000 residents. The statewide rate is 81.4.

The percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus kept increasing, to 12.45%, the highest since testing became widely available in early May.

The state announced 25 more deaths from Covid-19, near the average for the last month; 20 were listed as confirmed and five were listed as probable, with confirmation pending. The state’s Covid-19 death toll is 2,901.

Gov. Andy Beshear did not issue a news release with a list of the fatalities or a link to a list, instead following what has become his usual Sunday practice of simply posting numbers on his Facebook page.

Hospitalizations for Covid-19 fell 2.2% from Saturday, to 1,713, and intensive-care cases fell 1%, to 380, but the number of patients breathing with ventilators rose 5.47%, to 212, the state’s daily report said.

The Lake Cumberland hospital readiness region reported that 96% of its intensive-care beds were occupied. In the Barren River region, the figure was 86%. In the easternmost region, which runs from Lee County to Pike County, 84% of intensive-care beds were in use. The state’s warning threshold is 80%.

A coronavirus outbreak continued at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty, keeping Morgan County’s seven-day infection rate by far the highest in the state. The county of 14,000 reported 152 new cases of the virus Sunday; the Corrections Department list was not updated.

Other counties with 10 or more new cases were: Jefferson, 610; Fayette, 238; Boone, 131; Kenton, 124; Warren, 98; Daviess, 82; Campbell, 73; Madison, 73; Bullitt, 58; Boyd, 57; Hardin, 52; Pike, 49; Nelson, 48; Shelby, 44; Scott, 40; McCracken, 39; Boyle, Franklin and Oldham, 38; Bell, 35; Calloway and Jessamine, 34; Harrison, 33; Barren and Greenup, 32; Pulaski, 31; Letcher and Muhlenberg, 30; Floyd, 29; Meade, 25; Henderson and Woodford, 23; Clinton, Ohio, Taylor and Trigg, 22; Mercer, Webster and Whitley, 21; Caldwell, Christian and Johnson, 20; Grant and Rowan, 18; Graves, Laurel and Perry, 17; Butler and Lincoln, 16; Anderson and Clark, 15; Allen, Grayson, Harlan, Knox, Montgomery and Spencer, 13; Carroll, Hopkins, Lewis and Livingston, 12; Hart and Lyon, 11;  and Bourbon, Carter, Leslie and Simpson, 10.

In other coronavirus news Sunday:

• “Hospitals are throwing out doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine because the federal government is giving some of the facilities syringes that can only extract five doses from vials that often contain more,” Politico reports.