16th COVID death reported in Clark County

Published 9:39 am Tuesday, December 8, 2020

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Another Clark Countian has died from complications of the coronavirus.

The death, which is the 16th reported locally, was announced by the Clark County Health Department Monday. No details were given about the individual.

Clark County and Kentucky continue to see a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases.

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The county has seen five consecutive record-high weeks for new cases, starting the week ending Nov. 8 through the week ending Dec. 6.

There were 75 cases reported the week ending Nov. 8, 86 the week ending Nov. 15, 102 the week ending Nov. 22 and 132 the week ending Nov. 29. Last week, there were 144 cases reported, which is the most ever reported in a single week.

Clark County saw its highest ever single day for cases Monday when there were 40 new cases reported.

On Monday, the incidence rate was 67, which keeps Clark in the state’s red zone for COVID spread.

As of Monday, there had been 1,127 cases reported in the county since March. Of those, 218 were active Monday.

The most local cases have been reported among the 19 to 29 age range, with at least 208 of the total cases being reported in that range as of Friday. There have been 119 reported in those 18 and younger, 153 for those 30 to 39, 160 for those 40 to 49, 147 for those 50 to 59, 131 for those 60 to 69, 82 for those 70 to 79 and 61 for those 80 and older.

There were 341 cases reported in November, according to Health Department data, which is more than twice the number reported in the previous highest month, which was October when there were 168 cases reported.

During November, seven Clark residents required hospitalization from complications of the virus, bringing the overall number of people requiring hospitalization up to 47. That data is only updated monthly, so the data for December hospitalizations will be available in early January.  

At least 893 local residents have recovered.

The state surpassed the 200,000 case and 2,000 death marks last week.

As of Monday, there had been 202,592 cases reported in Kentucky leading to 2,082 deaths.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Saturday that Kentucky had its new highest week of COVID-19 cases, even with one day left to report, but indicated other data shows some improvement.

According to Kentucky Health News, “The seven-day rolling average of new cases dropped for the first time in almost a week, to 3,406, with Sunday’s addition of 2,567 new cases — 8.4 percent less than last Sunday’s 2,803. (Sunday and Monday numbers tend to be low because of limited testing.)”

COVID-19 hospital cases fell 3.35 percent, to 1,673, and 401 of them were in intensive-care units, the same as Saturday; the number of ICU patients on ventilators fell by 12, to 214.

Beshear reported 10 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, the lowest number in more than a week.

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days fell for the third day, to 9.75 percent. Still, that’s almost double the percentage that public-health experts say is a warning sign; it’s been above 5 percent since Oct. 22.

There have been more than 2.9 million tests performed in the state. On Monday, the positivity rate was 9.6 percent.

At least 30,239 Kentuckians have recovered.