Kentucky recorded 1,457 new cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, the second highest daily total, exceeded only by 1,487 on Wednesday. That pushed the seven-day rolling average to 1,191, the highest yet, and 29 above yesterday, the previous record.
“This week has been a tough week, with three out of the five highest days,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a news release. “This virus is everywhere. It is in your community. We need every community doing what it takes to defeat it.”
Beshear reported 16 more deaths from COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the state’s death toll to 1,396. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that even with one day left in the week, Kentucky has already had 84 COVID-19 deaths, surpassing its highest previous weekly toll, 72 between Aug. 30 and Sept. 5.
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The fatalities were a 69-year-old woman from Boyd County; two women, 77 and 84, from Daviess County; a 71-year-old woman from Fayette County; three women, 84, 101 and 102, and three men, 73, 76 and 84, from Jefferson County; a 64-year-old man from Knott County; an 87-year-old woman from Lee County; an 84-year-old woman from Leslie County; a 75-year-old woman from Logan County; an 86-year-old woman from Marshall County; and an 80-year-old man from Todd County.
The release said a record 818 people were hospitalized in Kentucky for COVID-19 on Friday, up 18 from Thursday; 205 are in intensive care, nine fewer than Thursday; and 97 are on a ventilator, eight fewer than Thursday.
The share of people testing positive for the virus in the past seven days continued to inch up, to 5.34 percent.
Beshear and his family will finish their two week quarantine on Saturday after being potentially exposed to the virus on Oct. 10 by a member of their security detail who tested positive for the virus, the release said.
“Wear a mask. It saves lives. I’ve now tested negative four straight times after sitting in the passenger seat next to someone driving who was infectious with COVID,” Beshear said. “I was wearing a mask. He was wearing a mask. That shows you that it works.”
In other COVID-19 news Friday:
- The release from Beshear’s office said the 21 fatalities were “an 84-year-old Kentuckian, gender unknown;” an 81-year-old man from Adair County; a 65-year-old woman from Boyd County; a 91-year-old woman from Christian County; a 69-year-old man from Clark County; a 52-year-old man from Clinton County; a 74-year-old woman from Daviess County; two women, 84 and 89, and two men, 84 and 93, from Henderson County; four women, 70, 82, 85 and 86, and two men, 63 and 83, from Jefferson County; two women, 42 and 77, from Madison County; a 76-year-old woman from Marion County; and a 57-year-old man from Todd County.
- In long-term care, 70 more residents and 40 more staff have tested positive for the virus, with 960 active resident cases and 537 active staff cases. There have been 818 resident and five staff deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the facilities.
- Beshear said the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore has 71 veterans who have tested positive for the virus, 13 veterans in the hospital, and six veterans who have died from COVID-19. Beshear said this is the only one of the state’s four veterans’ nursing homes with any active cases.
- The K-12 dashboard reports 86 more students and 28 more staff and faculty have tested positive, and 587 more students and 77 more staff are quarantined. So far this week, 199 students and 113 staff have tested positive and 1,817 students and 318 staff have been quarantined.
- The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, says that at least two-thirds of this year’s “excess deaths,” the number above the typical total during the same period in previous years, were from covid-19. The report says, “Overall, an estimated 299,028 excess deaths occurred from late January through Oct. 3, 2020, with 198,081 (66%) excess deaths attributed to COVID-19. The largest percentage increases were seen among adults aged 25–44 years and among Hispanic or Latinx persons.
- The CDC released an updated definition for what it means to be in “close contact” with someone with the virus. It now says close contact means you were within six feet of someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus for a total of 15 minutes at any time over a 24-hour period. The prior guidance said the 15 minutes had to be all at one time. Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert, told The Associated Pressthat this shows the virus can spread more easily than many people realize. The change was prompted by a study of a 20-year-old Vermont correctional officer who wore a mask and goggles, but ended up testing positive for the virus after video footage showed he had had 17 minutes of brief interactions with other prisoners, some with mask and others without, during an eight-hour shift. “In a statement, CDC officials said the case highlights again the importance of wearing masks to prevent transmission,” AP reports.
- Peer-reviewed studies cited by NPR shows that the rate of COVID-19 deaths in hospitalized patients has dropped. The research found patients had a 25.6% chance of dying at the start of the pandemic; they now have a 7.6% chance. That is a great improvement, but it’s still higher than many other infectious diseases, including influenza, Leora Horwitz, an author of one of the studies, told NPR. Another study set out to determine if the drop was due to improvements in treatment or because more young people are being hospitalized with COVID-19. It found that after adjusting for age and other diseases, the death rates dropped for all groups.
- More than $780,000 in federal funding has been awarded to Kentucky public-safety agencies and offices to help protect seniors and other Kentuckians against pandemic scams and fraud, and respond to price gouging. Most of the funding went to the attorney general’s office, according to a news release form Beshear’s office.
(Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.)
Melissa Patrick is a reporter for Kentucky Health News, an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. She has received several competitive fellowships, including the 2016-17 Nursing and Health Care Workforce Media Fellow of the Center for Health, Media & Policy, which allowed her to focus on and write about nursing workforce issues in Kentucky; and the year-long Association of Health Care Journalists 2017-18 Regional Health Journalism Program fellowship. She is a former registered nurse and holds degrees in journalism and community leadership and development from UK.
