State reports third largest number of deaths from coronavirus in one day, fourth largest number of new cases in a day

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Kentucky reported the fourth largest number of new coronavirus cases Wednesday, along with the third largest number of additional deaths.

“We’re going to pass 3,000 Covid-19 deaths in the commonwealth,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a news release. “That is tragic. We can stop this. We need to wear masks. We need to follow the rules and restrictions, and now is not the time to pull away the authority that keeps us safe. That allows us to be fluid and flexible with a virus that appears to be mutating and spreading more aggressively.”

The state's Covid-19 death toll rose to 2,991 with the addition of 47 to the state's list. The largest one-day figures are 54 and 53, respectively, on Dec. 24 and Dec. 17. The dates do not represent the date of death, but the date that the death was confirmed or listed as probable.

 

The number of new cases, 4,560, is the fourth largest of any day. The three largest (5,742, 4,911 and 4,750) were on consecutive days last week.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases fell to 3,833, because the record day was eight days ago. The average set a record of 4,002 Tuesday.

Hospitalizations for Covid-19 declined 1.8%, to 1,702, but the number of patients in intensive care rose 1.5%, to 403 and those on ventilators rose 9.8%, to 225.

Hospitals in the Lake Cumberland hospital-readiness region reported that all their intensive-care beds were occupied, apparently the first time that has happened. Their overall bed occupancy was 62.45%.

Two other regions had figures over 80%, putting them in red on the state's daily report. Barren River reported 80.1% of its beds were full, and the easternmost region, from Lee to Pike counties, reported 89% of its intensive-care beds were occupied.

One encouraging sign is that the percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days fell for the third straight day, to 12.29%. But the rate is twice as high as it was Nov. 1, and anything over 5% is worrisome to public-health experts.

Counties with prisons such as Morgan and Oldham continued to have high rates of new infections. Morgan's average over the last seven days has been 954 cases per 100,000 population; it is followed by Clinton, 221; Carroll, 168; Clay, 162; Wayne, 147; Harrison, 146; Cumberland, 138; Oldham, 134; Webster, Taylor, 112.5; Nelson, 111.5; Hancock, 111.4; Graves, 111.2; Mercer, 108.8; Butler, 108.7; Henderson, 106.2; Ohio, 106; Caldwell, 105.3; and Boyd, 102.4.

The Corrections Department's daily report shows 1,466 active cases among prisoners and 151 among employees. Five staff and 39 employees have died.

In other coronavirus news Wednesday:

• Nine of the newly listed deaths were in Jefferson County: six women, 65, 81, 82, 89, 89 and 93; and three men, 71,787 and 90. The state's smallest county, Robertson, had two deaths, a 63-year-old woman and a 78-year-old man.
• The other fatalities were an Adair County man, 64; a Bell County woman, 80; a Boyle County man and woman, 77 and 91; a Caldwell County woman, 63; a Carter County woman, 71; two Carter County men, 81 and 92; a Clay County woman, 80; a Clinton County man, 76; a Grayson County woman, 72; a Hardin County woman, 59; two Hopkins County women, 83 and 87; a Jackson County man, 54; two LaRue County men, 66 and 67; a Leslie County woman, 75; a Letcher County woman, 58; a Livingston County man, 77; a McCracken County man, 70; two McCreary County women, 68 and 76; a Madison County woman, 81; a Metcalfe County woman and man, 65 and 67; two Muhlenberg County men, 79 and 91; a Pulaski County man, 81; two Rockcastle County women, 73 and 88; two Russell County women, 80 and 86; a Scott County man, 72; and a Washington County man and woman, 78 and 89.
• Counties with more than 10 new cases were: Jefferson, 664; Oldham, 247; Kenton, 241; Fayette, 237; Daviess, 170; Boone, 160; Morgan, 119; Campbell, 106; Pulaski, 104; Warren, 97; Pike, 80; Hardin, 74; Bullitt, 71; Boyd, 70; Christian, 69; Madison, 661; Nelson, 64; Laurel, 62; Clark, 61; Henderson, 58; Scott, 58; Knox, Taylor and Whitley, 54; Harrison, 51; Hopkins and Ohio, 50; Wayne, 48; Graves, 46; Calloway, 42; Boyle and Franklin, 39; Clinton, Perry and Shelby, 38; Jessamine, 37; McCracken and Russell, 34; Floyd, 33; Grayson and Montgomery, 31; Todd, 27; Bell, Lincoln and Rowan, 25; Greenup and Woodford, 24; Barren and Marion, 22; Grant and McCreary, 20; Meade, 19; Carter, Lawrence, Mason and Washington, 17; Johnson, Logan, Mercer and Muhlenberg, 16; Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Fleming and Webster, 15; Bracken and Garrard, 14; Breathitt, Cumberland, Hart, Leslie, McLean and Rockcastle, 13; Hancock, Harlan, Marshall and Union, 12; and Butler, Carroll, Martin and Trimble, 11. 
• Researchers at Ohio State said they have discovered in one patient a new strain of the coronavirus that is likely to be more infectious. They said it is similar to the one discovered in the United Kingdom, but likely originated in the U.S., and the discovery suggests that the same mutation may have occurred around the world in the past few months. There is no data to suggest yet that the mutations will have any impact on the effectiveness of current vaccines, they said.
• West Virginia is outpacing the rest of the nation in coronavirus vaccine distribution because the state has taken more direct control of the process than other states, instead of relying on big pharmacy chains. "All 49 other states signed on with a federal program partnering with CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate long-term care and assisted living facilities," Yuki Noguchi reports for NPR. "But those chain stores are less common in West Virginia, so the state instead took charge of delivering its vaccine supply to 250 pharmacies — most of them small, independent stores." Harnessing existing pharmacy-nursing home relationships also helped speed things up. "Many long-term care sites in the state already use local pharmacies for other vaccines and medicines as well as twice-weekly coronavirus testing of residents and staff," Noguchi reports. "The state decided to piggyback off those existing relationships. Because those pharmacies already had data on many patients, it was easier to begin scheduling appointments in early December, securing consent forms and matching doses to eligible patients — logistics that are confounding efforts in many other states."