Kentucky's Covid-19 metrics continue to drop, almost to last June's lows, but pandemic death toll has surpassed 15,000

In yellow counties on this adapted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map, the CDC says residents who are immuno-compromised or at high risk for severe illness should talk to a health-care provider about "additional precautions, such as wearing masks or respirators indoors in public. If you live with or have social contact with someone at high risk for severe illness, consider testing yourself for infection before you get together and wearing a mask when indoors with them."

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The good news about the Covid-19 pandemic is that all metrics to measure the coronavirus in Kentucky continue to drop – including deaths, for the second week in a row. The bad news is that the addition of last week's Covid-19 deaths means that more than 15,000 Kentuckians have died from the disease.  

The state attributed 135 more deaths to Covid-19 last week, an average of 19.3 per day. That's down from 33.7 per day last week and approximately 40 a day recorded in each of the three weeks prior to that. The state's pandemic death toll is now 15,028. 

From last Monday through Sunday, the standard reporting week, the percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus dropped again, to 1.97%. The last time the state saw a positivity rate this low was in June 2021, just before the highly contagious Omicron variant hit. The low was 1.79%.

The state's weekly report showed 3,948 new cases of the virus during the week ended April 4, an average of 564 per day. The week before, the average was 790 per day. 

The state's seven-day infection rate fell to 4.13 daily cases per 100,000 residents. A few hotspots remain. Counties with rates more than double the statewide rate were Pike and Trimble, 8.4;  Cumberland. 8.6; Perry, 9.4; Wolfe, 12; Hickman, 13; Clinton, 23.8; Taylor, 24.9; and Anderson, 42.1. 

The New York Times ranks Kentucky's infection rate fourth among states, even though the number of cases has declined 46% in the last 14 days.

Of the week's new cases, nearly 24% were in people 18 and younger. 

Hospitals reported 240 patients with Covid-19, less than a third of the 782 reported a month ago; 36 of them were in intensive care and 18 were on mechanical ventilation. Five of the state's hospital regions are using at least 80% of their intensive-care beds, but very few of their patients have Covid-19. Overall, 53% of beds were in use, 77% of ICU beds were, and only 22% of ventilators were.