Christian County is among six counties in Kentucky with the highest number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a new map released Friday by the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
Also ranking among counties with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 are Hopkins, Daviess, Jefferson, Fayette and Kenton.
As of Friday, Christian County had 62 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the county health department. That’s an increase of six cases since Thursday.
Kentucky’s three largest counties — Jefferson, Fayette and Kenton — logically rank among those with the largest number of COVID-19 cases. Daviess is the seventh-largest county.
But Christian and Hopkins counties are lower on the state’s population rank, 11th and 23rd, respectively. However, each has a hotspot linked to a large number of coronavirus infections.
| County | Population Rank | Population | COVID-19 Cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson | 1 | 767,000 | 520 |
| Fayette | 2 | 318,000 | 197 |
| Kenton | 3 | 164,000 | 85 |
| Daviess | 7 | 100,000 | 79 |
| Christian | 11 | 72,000 | 62 |
| Hopkins | 23 | 45,000 | 83 |
COVID-19 Hotspots
Fifty-four of Hopkins County’s 83 cases, including six deaths, resulted from a spread that began at a church revival.
More than a third of the 62 cases in Christian County have come from Western State Hospital, where 11 patients and 11 employees have tested for COVID-19. Two of three Christian County COVID-19 deaths were patients of the state psychiatric hospital.
It is not known outside the ranks of local health officials if any other locations in Christian County are linked to a large number of coronavirus cases comparable to the number at Western State. County Health Director Kayla Bebout has declined to make public any locations linked to people made ill by the coronavirus.
That information becomes public only if an official or a business owner at a location chooses to be transparent.
Gov. Andy Beshear highlighted the outbreak at Western State during his daily briefings, as the number of patients and employees who have tested positive grows. A spokeswoman at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services provided additional information to Hoptown Chronicle, including the patient census at Western State — 123 on Tuesday, April 7.
The health department also declined to confirm if any of the three people who died from COVID-19 complications were from Western State. Instead, Jennie Stuart Medical Center provided that confirmation.
No information has been made public about whether health officials know where the third person who died might have contracted the virus.
Two local institutions and one business owner informed the public when an employee tested positive for COVID-19. Those involved one employee of Hopkinsville Community College; two Christian County Public Schools employees, a Christian County Middle School cafeteria worker and a transportation department employee; and an employee of Gracious Me! gift store.
COVID-19 patients at Jennie Stuart
During a teleconference Friday with Christian County health officials, Jennie Stuart CEO Eric Lee said the hospital is treating 14 patients with known or suspected COVID-19, and five of them are in the intensive-care unit. (Test results are pending to confirm if eight of the patients have the coronavirus.)
More than 700 people have been tested through Jennie Stuart for COVID-19. A drive-thru test site at the hospital’s Express Lab had a difficult start because LabCorp was taking several days to provide test results from specimen collected in Hopkinsville, according to Jennie Stuart. The hospital switched to a different lab, PTC in Missouri, and most of the results are now available in 24 to 36 hours, said Lee.
The process is working much better since Jennie Stuart switched from LabCorp to PTC, he said.
Forty of Christian County’s cases remained active, meaning the patients were still experiencing systems of the respiratory disease, on Friday. Nineteen patients have recovered. Three patients have died.
The number of local cases by age group are:
- Pediatric (0-21): 3
- Young Adult-Middle Age (22-59): 36
- Older Adult (60-84): 20
- Elderly (85+): 3
Health department spokeswoman Amanda Sweeney reminded the public of two safety concerns.
Non-essential businesses, such as clothing stores, gift shops and art galleries, may do business through curbside services with limited face-to-face contact with customers. They may not make appointments for customers to come into the business.
Also, anyone living with a person who is waiting for a COVID-19 test result should quarantine and remain isolated from that person in the home, she said.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
