Coronavirus cases and positivity rates are trending down, but Beshear cautions that the risk to you and your family remains high

Kentucky Department for Public Health graphic; URL leads to list of testing sites

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

While numbers of new coronavirus cases and percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus continue to trend down, Gov. Andy Beshear cautioned Wednesday that the numbers are still too high for comfort and that the risk of spread, and harm to you or your family, remains high.

"This is still a dangerous time in America," Beshear said at a news conference. "Virus levels are still at some of the highest that they have been since the beginning of the pandemic and with some new variants . . . the risks of spread and of harm to you or your family are still at some of the highest that they've ever been."  

Beshear reported 2,424 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the state's seven-day rolling average to 2,672, the lowest average of the month, except for Jan. 1 and 2. Today's number is also the lowest Wednesday since Jan. 6, when the state reported what remains the single-day record high of  5,742 new cases. 

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus continues to decline. Today, it was 9.35%, which is down to the levels of late December. 

Health Commissioner Steven Stack said the state's two cases of the United Kingdom variant of the coronavirus, which were initially reported yesterday, were found in Kenton County. 

Stack cautioned  that this variance is more contagious, meaning it spreads more easily and you are more likely to get infected by it.  

"It's not more dangerous for the person who gets it than the previous version of the virus, but since more people can get it more quickly and more easily, that means you could have more people get sick or more people could die," said Stack. 

 Because of that, he said it is even more important for people to wear their mask, to stay six-feet away from each other, to keep our hands washed , to get tested if you think you've been exposed and to stay home if you are sick.

Beshear said the two individuals are "doing OK" and are not hospitalized. He did not answer if the two were connected or had traveled outside the country. And because of how the virus spreads, he said it has likely that it has already spread beyond these two individuals.  

The Northern Kentucky Health Department says in a news release that the UK variant of the virus has now been detected in 293 cases in 24 states in the United States. 

Stack said the two available vaccines are effective against the new variant strains of the virus. He added that when he asked whether a person should take the Pfizer, Inc. vaccine or the Moderna one, he tells them to best one is "the one you can get." 

Vaccines: Beshear said the federal governments 16% to 17% increase in weekly doses will bring the state's total up to about 65,000 initial doses next week.  

But even with these improvements, Beshear continued to lament the need for more supply, saying again that the state has the capacity to vaccinate 250,000 people a week if it only had the supply. 

"Our only limitation at this point is that our capacity already exceeds our supply," he said. 

Beshear said his request to the federal government to double the state's supply of the vaccine is separate from this latest allocation, and that he had not yet gotten a response to that request. 

Beshear said the state is also in the process of receiving 12,675 first doses of the vaccine from CVS Health and Walgreens, which are extra doses that were not used after they vaccinated residents and staff in the state's long-term care facilities, a program that was run by the federal government. 

Beshear said he was talking to the Biden administration about getting one of the 
FEMA vaccination centers that is in the works, and that he would be receptive to being one of the states that gets vaccines sent to independent pharmacies, but it will depend on whether the programs come with their own supply of the vaccine. 

"We want all of these programs, but it's all about the supply and the Biden administration agrees. If we can get a huge influx, then absolutely," he said. 

Looking forward, Beshear said it will be important for independent pharmacies and local health departments to help the state reach out to hard-to-reach individuals. 

He said for now, in order to ensure the most equitable distribution of the vaccine, the plan is to distribute it regionally.  

Asked if being a smoker would put a person into the 1C category to get the vaccine, as is suggested on the CDC website, Beshear said that while conditions that are exacerbated or caused by smoking are on Kentucky's list, "You can't smoke your way into 1C." 

Schools: Asked if the CDC report that says with strict mitigation efforts, there is little spread of the the virus in schools impacts his thinking about getting Kentucky kids back to school, Beshear encouraged everyone to read the full report, which also comes with recommendations regarding community spread, like closing bars and restaurants, and calls for getting teachers vaccinated.

He said the state should finish vaccinating K-12 personnel by the end of next week. 

"Remember, we don't have any order that prevents in-person learning at the moment, we do have guidance. We're gonna be able to loosen that significantly once everybody is through [getting vaccinated]," he said. "We do have an order out there, though, that does require a virtual learning option for students and accommodations for teachers, some of those accommodations are going to be able to be loosened or removed once we have folks that have been offered the vaccine." 

"We are going to be the fastest state to get there to have the very safest schools, he said, regarding getting all of the school personnel that are willing vaccinated. 

Stack said the state will work on getting the remaining people who are 70 and older vaccinated in February, He said 90,000 of this group have already been vaccinated, leaving 400,000 more. 

Deaths: He announced 47 new deaths from Covid-19, 41 of them confirmed and six of them probable, bringing the state's death toll to 3,542. The 14-day death average hits a new high, 39.4. The seven-day average is 42.7, just under the record of 43 that was set yesterday. 

Today, Beshear honored the life of Ernest A. Bates, who was a heating, ventilation and air conditioning inspector with the Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction for over 13 years, having been in that business for over 48 years. He died at age 76 from Covid-19. 

Beshear said Bates is survived by his wife of 28 years, Nancy, his son, Alan, who also works as an HVAC inspector in state government, his stepdaughters, Robin and Toni, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. 

"Today we lift up his family in prayer and we give thanks to the many years of service he gave to the commonwealth," said Beshear. "To Ernest's family, we are so sorry for your loss." 

In other Covid-19 news Wednesday: 

• Today's fatalities were a Barren County man, 87; a Campbell County woman, 84; a Christian County woman, 67; a Christian County man, 78; four Daviess County women, 86,86,87,99; one Daviess County man, 83; a Fayette County man, 84; a Fleming County woman,79; a Fleming County man, 96; a Graves County man,73; a Green County woman, 77; a Harlan County woman, 89; a Harlan County man,73; a Harrison County woman, 90; two Hart County women, 73,77; a Hart County man, 71; a Henderson Count man,77; a Hopkins County man, 76; three Jefferson County women, 56,69,72; five Jefferson County men, 57,68,69,73,81; two Kenton County men, 66,91; four Menifee County women, 64,75,80,87; two Menifee County men, 75,90; and Ohio County woman, 81; a Rowan County man,80; a Todd County man, 77; three Warren County women, 46,70,95; a Warren County man, 39; a Wayne County man, 75; and a Webster County man, 69.
• Counties with 10 or more new cases were Jefferson, 330, Fayette, 180; Daviess, 102; Kenton, 88; Boone, 82; Warren, 76; Pike, 70;  Madison, 67; Pulaski, 62; Hardin, 56; Bullitt and Laurel, 45; Jessamine, 44; Calloway, 38; Campbell, 37; Christian, 36; Nelson, 35; Barren, 34; Oldham, 32; Whitley, 31; Floyd, McCracken and Scott, 26; Anderson, Graves, Greenup and Knox, 24; Shelby, 23; Henderson, Mercer and Montgomery, 22; Taylor, 21; Clark, 20; Boyd, 19; Meade and Russell, 18; Perry, 17; Menifee, 16; Carter and McCreary, 15; Allen and Ohio, 14; Casey and Marion, 13; Fleming, Hart, Marshall and Woodford, 12; Grant, Harlan, Larue and Muhlenberg, 11; Bell, Bourbon, Clay, Edmonson, Hopkins, Metcalfe, Rowan, Spencer, Union and Washington, 10.
• The K-12 school dashboard shows that so far this week, 703 students and 228 staff have tested positive for the virus, and 3,680 students and 481 staff are in quarantine. 414 schools had not reported. 
• In long-term care, there are 28 new residents and 14 new staff who have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of active cases to 708 residents and 380 staff. Beshear attributed 24 more deaths in these facilities to Covid-19, bringing the total number of staff and resident deaths from the disease to 2,154.
• Three of the hospital readiness regions have an intensive care capacity rate of 80% or more: Barren River, at 82.41%; the easternmost region, at 91.18%; and Lake Cumberland, at 95.56%. The Northern Region has an overall hospital capacity of 81.53%. 
• There are 1,597 people hospitalized with the virus (up 31 from yesterday); 387 in intensive care (up four); and 225 (down three) of those on a ventilator. 
• On Jan. 20, Beshear sent a two-page letter, obtained Tuesday by the Lexington Herald-Leader through an Open Records request, to Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne that offers suggestions to "create a reasonable framework around which to have a conversation” about the legislation he vetoed that limits his authority, Jack Brammer reports for the Herald-Leader. The letter was in response to Stivers comments to the Louisville Courier Journal that the legislature's decision to override the vetoes could depend on the governor's willingness to talk to them, Beshear said in his letter that his “strong preference is for any legislation to wait until Kentucky has emerged from this deadly pandemic," reports Brammer. As of Jan. 27, Kentucky has seen more than 350,000 cases and 3,495 deaths from the virus.
• Brammer continues,  “To ‘mess’ with emergency powers that have helped us achieve this relative success would be like legislating troop movements and tactics in the middle of a battle,” said Beshear. “The inevitable result is less success and more casualties.” If the General Assembly is determined to pass legislation, he said, “then I recommend we discuss narrowly tailoring” the legislation to address lawmakers’ concerns.
• The pandemic has left thousands of Kentuckians in need of both financial help and other types of assistance. Sarah Ladd with the Courier Journal has compiled a list of many of the assistance funds and programs available for Kentuckian. 
• WDRB tells the story of a Spencer County man, Jerry Harden, who has diabetes and was diagnosed with Covid-19 in December and was given bamlanivimab monoclonal anitbody infusion and quickly recovered. Doctors told WDRB that it is important that this treatment be given early in the illness and encouraged Kentuckians who test positive for the virus to ask their provider if they are eligible for it. 
• Eli Lilly, which makes bamlanivimab, released a large, late-stage study on Tuesday that found bamlanivimab combined with another monoclonal antibody, etesevimab, was found to be "extremely effective in high-risk patients diagnosed with Covid-19," Karen Weintraub reports for USA Today. "Among patients who received a placebo, 10% of those at high risk ended up in the hospital, compared with just 2% of those who received the drug cocktail – a 70% drop. Patients were diagnosed an average of four days before treatment," she writes. It's important to now that to get the benefit from these drugs, they must be given in the early stages of the disease. "Once hospitalized with Covid-19, the drug does nothing to help," a Lilly study has shown, Weintraub reports. 
• For more information about bamlanivimab in the U.S., Lilly has set up a 24-hour support line at 1-855-545-5921. Patients and physicians can also visit covid.infusioncenter.org or the HHS Therapeutic Distribution locator to find a potential treatment location.
• The Axios/Ipsos poll of 1,112 adults conducted Jan. 22-25 found trust in the federal government to provide accurate information on Covid-19 (50%), willingness to get the coronavirus vaccine immediately (49%) and improvement in mental health in the last week (14%) have all increased since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. It also found that a small subset, 18%, of Americans is driving the most risky behavior -- with fewer than half of this group, 44%, saying they wear a mask all of the time and only one-third of them concerned about the pandemic.  

EXTRA QUOTE: 

"I'm convinced that one of the reasons we are seeing trends going the right way is that every single one of you across Kentucky is doing more, and is doing better even if you were doing it right every other day. More people wear a mask, more people trying to follow the rules. Let's be the most vigilant we've ever been knowing that victory is around the corner, we've got to protect one another until then," he said.