Every Kentucky county has a low risk of Covid-19 transmission

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Every county in Kentucky has a low risk of Covid-19 transmission, according to the latest weekly analysis of risk based on new cases and hospital capacity by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The latest map shows the whole state is in green, a level that comes with recommendations to stay up to date with your Covid-19 vaccines and to avoid contact with people who have suspected or confirmed Covid-19.

So does that mean the pandemic is over? The answer is, not yet. However, the leader of the World Health Organization said mid-March that he expects that the organization will declare an end to it later this year, WebMD reports. President Biden is letting the public-health emergency expire in May 11.

“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that Covid-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a Geneva briefing.

The CDC also provides a community level transmission map, largely used by health-care facilities and researchers, that shows the level of virus in each county, at one of four levels. The latest map shows six counties with a low level of transmission and 53 with a medium level; the rest are either substantial or high. The state says residents should take their guidance from the other map.

On March 31, The New York Times, using CDC data, found Kentucky’s new-case rate to be the 19th highest in the nation, at 46 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days.