Two people in their forties from Kenton Co. who died from COVID-19 were mentioned specifically by Governor Andy Beshear during a news conference on Monday.
The governor offered updates on the status of the pandemic in Kentucky, as well as the recovery effort in the western part of the state following devastating, deadly tornadoes earlier this month.
Beshear said that that omicron variant of COVID-19 is “increasing significantly across the U.S.” but “we have not seen major increases here.”
He continued his push for vaccination as the best way to protect oneself from serious illness is to be vaccinated with a booster shot.Â
From Thursday through Monday, Kentucky saw 156 COVID-related deaths, including a 44-year old woman and a 42-year old man from Kenton Co., specifically mentioned by Beshear, along with two other victims in the state also in their forties.Â
The governor blamed those deaths on the delta variant of the virus, “killing people in their forties at a rate we haven’t seen before in this pandemic.”
From Thursday through Monday, the state recorded nearly 10,000 new positive COVID cases (9,994) including 1,252 across five Northern Kentucky counties: 468 in Kenton, 419 in Boone, 279 in Campbell, 50 in Grant, and 26 in Pendleton.
The state’s positivity rate has risen to 11.8%.
There are currently 1,225 people hospitalized due to COVID across the state, including 348 in intensive care units and 205 on ventilators.
So far, more than 2.76 million people in the state have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, 62% of the population, including 66% of Kentuckians ages 5 and older and 73% of all Kentucky adults.
Locally, Campbell Co. ranks highest for percentage of vaccinated population with 69%, placing it fourth in the state behind Fayette, Woodford, and Jefferson counties.
Covington Police on Monday posted to social media about long lines at the COVID testing site operated by Gravity Diagnostics at the former IRS site, and Ft. Mitchell Police also posted recently about long lines at the Gravity-operated site in that city. Gravity also operates a site in Florence which has also seen long lines recently.
In other COVID-related news, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued this announcement on Monday:
Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others. The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after. Therefore, people who test positive should isolate for 5 days and, if asymptomatic at that time, they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for 5 days to minimize the risk of infecting others.
Read the full announcement from the CDC here.
-Staff report
Image via Governor Beshear’s news conference live stream