Last week, Governor Andy Beshear announced that when 2.5 million Kentuckians have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccination, he will begin to lift attendance restrictions at different businesses and venues across the state.
Kentuckians responded to that with the fewest number of new vaccinations since the first week of December.
Last week, just over 24,000 new people were vaccinated, down from 84,000 the previous week and 125,000 two weeks ago.
Beshear said Kentucky appears to be in a plateau in case numbers, but variants have the potential to cause another spike.
Three cases of a COVID-19 variant have been reported in Marshall County. Two cases have been reported in Christian County and one case each in Caldwell, Lyon, and Calloway counties.
Beshear said the state will soon start publishing county by county vaccination rates.
click to download audioThe Centers for Disease Control announced last week that 5,800 people in the United States had contracted COVID-19 more than two weeks after they were fully vaccinated. They are called breakthrough cases. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said those cases should not keep someone from getting vaccinated.
click to download audioAs of last week, there was one confirmed breakthrough case in Christian County and three in the five counties served by the Pennyrile District Health Department, with at least one of those in Trigg County.
The state reported 628 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, which is down from 834 last Thursday. The state’s testing positivity rate of 3.36-percent is also down from last week’s 3.45-percent.
Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized is up by two-dozen over last Thursday and the number in the ICU is up by 19.
The state announced five new deaths linked to COVID-19 and three others from December.
