Christian County has been designated a “critical” county by both the state and the White House with the health department making several recommendations to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the community.
The county has reported an increase of 260 cases over the past two weeks, although the seven-day rolling average of active cases this week dropped below 200 for the first time in five weeks. Amanda Sweeney with health department said the White House Coronavirus Task Force Report and the Kentucky incident report are two separate reports and have different criteria for categorizing county severity. The White House report is released each week, while the state report, which is used to provide guidance to community, schools, and long-term care facilities, is updated every day.
Because the county’s numbers are reported as “critical” in both reports, the health department is recommending that only one family member per household enter a business and that places of worship find alternate means of worship and prevent congregate gatherings.
The health department is also recommending that all community and school-related sports be discontinued as well as social and community events. In addition, they are recommending long-term care facilities and hospitals further limit visitors unless it is the end of life care.
Many of these recommendations were in place earlier this year before the state began phasing back in the reopening of businesses and events.
The recommendations come on the same day the health department reported Christian County’s 20th death linked to COVID-19, an 86-year old woman with underlying health conditions. Christian is the 11th county in the state with at least 20 deaths linked to the virus.
The health department reported 21 new cases of the virus, giving the county 219 active cases — the most in 10 days. The seven-day rolling average of active cases is 197 — the sixth straight day that number has been under 200.
The number of people under the age of 21 with an active case has increased from 23 to 53 in a week. The number of active cases involving people over the age of 60 has increased 20 in the past week to 61, which is the most since Sept. 12.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
