FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) – Governor Andy Beshear has provided an update on COVID-19 cases.
The governor says a COVID-19 outbreak has been reported at a nursing home in eastern Kentucky. 41 cases are reported, including five residents who were hospitalized. Dr. Steven Stack says that 30% of vaccinated people are symptomatic and 83% of those not vaccinated at the nursing home have symptoms. He says vaccination has reduced symptomatic disease. One of the five residents of the hospital was vaccinated.
They say it seems to be a different variant of Britain, Brazil or the South African strain. Dr. Stack says it’s the same group I’m doing some research on. The name of the plant in eastern Kentucky where this new variant was detected is not available at this time. The governor says he is working to identify the facility and better deal with the situation.
Governor Beshear reported 819 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 417,412 cases. The governor says the state sees a positivity rate of 3.87%. Of Tuesday’s new cases, 122 are in children 18 years of age or younger.
24 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total number to 5,029.
As of Tuesday, 459 people are hospitalized for reasons related to COVID-19, 110 are in the ICU and 59 are on ventilators. At least 48,802 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.
Governor Beshear also says Kentucky is monitoring the outbreak of an Ebola outbreak in two African countries. He says 11 Kentuckians were in one of those two countries. However, they do not believe that there is a significant risk of spreading here. But they are watching.
“We are working with our hospitals to make sure they are ready to deal with any suspicious patients for 12 to 24 hours,” Governor Beshear said. “We have six Ebola assessment hospitals working with us to make sure they are prepared to deal with potential patients and Ebola assessments.”
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