Health

Although the department is still working through phase 1a of the state's vaccine distribution plan, it expects to move to phase 1b in early February.

For the fourth day in a row, COVID-19 hospitalizations at Jennie Stuart have reached a record high.

The COVID-19 vaccines being distributed in the U.S. require two doses to achieve the effectiveness level of 95% recorded in clinical trials.

Ten days after the state's first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on March 6, the governor ordered the initial round of business closures. By the end of the year, 57 virus-related deaths had been confirmed in Christian County.

A wastewater testing project in Mayfield is helping pinpoint outbreaks of the novel coronavirus even before residents experience symptoms

Local "non-hospital" health care agencies — as well as emergency responders that provide medical care — that haven't signed up to receive the vaccine can do so on the health department's website.

For the week of Dec. 18 through 24, the hospital reached record highs for the total number of inpatient beds occupied by coronavirus patients and its overall proportion of COVID-19 patients.

Jennie Stuart Health has received 500 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and distribution has begun among its frontline workers.

The Pennyroyal Arts Council helped the health department by emailing parents of the other dancers to make them aware someone in the ballet had tested positive for the virus.

Three of the last four weeks of data show that Jennie Stuart's ratio of COVID-19 patients to total beds was at or above the 20% threshold that puts a hospital under “extreme stress.” For the most recent week available, the ratio of 16%.

At least 181 state and local public health leaders in 38 states have resigned, retired or been fired since April 1, the largest exodus of public health leaders in American history.

Representatives from three hospitals in Lexington are urging citizens to avoid using emergency departments for non-symptomatic COVID-19 testing.