This article has been corrected to reflect that eleven people are being monitored for Ebola symptoms.
Kentucky may beat President Joe Biden’s goal to open up vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and up by May 1, Governor Andy Beshear said Tuesday.
But he also shared more troubling news during his daily COVID-19 update: six men from Northern Kentucky are among the 24 newly reported COVID-related deaths; the state now has eleven people being monitored for Ebola symptoms, another deadly virus; and a long-term care facility in Kentucky has a current COVID outbreak involving 41 people. Most of the residents and nearly half of the staff had already been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“This week, while we are so hopeful, this virus is still out there and it is still dangerous. Please continue to wear your mask and social distance – even if you’ve been vaccinated, you have a duty to everybody else who is still waiting for their vaccine,” said Beshear. “Remember, by May 31, we believe every Kentucky adult who wants a vaccine will have gotten at least their first shot of hope. We believe that we will beat the president’s goal to open appointments up to everybody 16 and up by May 1.”
None of the eleven people being monitored for Ebola symptoms have been deemed by their local health departments as high-risk for exposure.
The Ky. residents recently returned from countries currently experiencing an Ebola outbreak (Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Local health departments contact travelers, assess exposure risk, educate those travelers about what to do if they have symptoms and quarantine those at high risk for 21 days.
“We are working with our hospitals to make sure they are ready to handle any suspect patients for 12 to 24 hours,” said Beshear. “We have six Ebola Assessment Hospitals that are working with us to make sure they are prepared to handle potential patients and assessments for Ebola.”
WFPL reported, “And they assess their exposure risk, they educate them about what symptoms they might have, and they quarantine those at high risk for 21 days, though we have not had a single person in Kentucky that is at high risk,” Beshear said.
Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said his team is responding to a COVID-19 outbreak in a long-term care facility where 41 people have tested positive for the virus.
“This situation is still unfolding, but I’m sharing this particular example today because there are some important lessons to take from it,” said Dr. Stack. “At this facility, 85% of residents and 48% of the health care workers have been vaccinated. It appears that an unvaccinated person introduced the virus into the facility. When it is your turn to get vaccinated, please do so. This is the best chance we have to keep our loved ones and ourselves safe from this terrible disease that has upended our lives. Vaccinations will also help us minimize the creation of new COVID-19 variants from mutations, which could cause us further harm in the future.”
Of the 41 infected people, only 30% of the vaccinated individuals have been symptomatic but 83% of the unvaccinated people have been symptomatic. Vaccination appears to have markedly reduced symptomatic disease, Stack said.
Additionally, five of the residents have been admitted to the hospital. Of these, four hospitalized residents were unvaccinated and one hospitalized resident had been vaccinated. Here, too, vaccination appears to have markedly reduced the risk of hospitalization, Stack said.
As for COVID-19 across the state, 819 newly confirmed cases were reported Tuesday and the state’s positivity rate stands at 3.87%.
There were 51 new cases across five Northern Kentucky counties: 24 in Kenton, 14 in Boone, 9 in Campbell, 3 in Grant, and one in Pendleton.
Among Tuesday’s dead were 51- and 81-year old men from Boone Co., 63- and 88-year old men from Campbell Co., and 64- and 72-year old men from Kenton Co.
There are currently 459 people hospitalized across the state, including 110 in intensive care units and 59 on ventilators.
-Staff report