Knox County reports ninth COVID-19 fatality, one COVID-19 positive Barbourville Dairy Queen employee Wednesday

Wednesday was not a good day in Knox County in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Knox County Health Department reported one new COVID-19 death, which raises the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the county to nine.

“We are also deeply saddened to report one death today. It is always tragic to report any death. Our hearts are with this family during this difficult time,” Knox County Health Department Director Rebecca Rains said Wednesday.

Knox County’s first eight COVID-19 deaths all involved patients at Christian Health Center in Corbin. The first five patients had pre-existing conditions. The status of the next three fatalities is unknown.

The Knox County Health Department also announced eight new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, including four children, and an employee at Dairy Queen in Barbourville.

“Knox County Health Department is working closely with management to ensure all employees are following proper recommendations. The employee who tested positive, as well as others in their immediate work area, are self-quarantining,” Rains said.

If you patronized the business on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, or Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, please monitor for symptoms of COVID-19. If you become ill and show signs of COVID-19, you should get tested, according to a health department release.

The Knox County Health Department reported seven new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, 16 new cases Monday, five new cases Friday, and nine new cases Thursday.

Knox County has a total of 263 COVID-19 cases.

Between April 6 and May 30, Knox County reported 10 COVID-19 cases with all 10 patients having fully recovered by June 15. Since June 11, there have been 253 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Knox County.

Out of the first 216 Knox County cases, 21 patients were under the age of 18, 45 patients were ages 18-30, 26 patients were ages 31-40, 26 patients were ages 41-50, 26 patients were ages 51-60, 13 patients were ages 61-70, 25 patients were ages 71-80, and 34 patients were over age 80.

As of Aug. 5, a total of 3,117 cases had been tested for COVID-19 in Knox County.

Laurel County

The Laurel County Health Department reported 10 new cases Wednesday, which ranged in age from a 7-year-old to a 71-year-old. Nine out of the 10 new patients are isolating at home, and one patient is hospitalized.

Wednesday’s cases include: a 36-year-old female (hospitalized), a 64-year-old male, a 45-year-old female, a seven-year- old female, a 55-year-old male, a 44-year-old female, a 71-year-old female, a 25-year-old female, a 32-year-old female, a 62-year-old male.

The Laurel County Health Department reported three new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, 11 new cases Monday, three new cases Sunday, eight new COVID-19 cases Saturday, five new cases Friday, and 10 new cases Thursday.

The Laurel County Health Department has a total of 452 cases, including: 217 recovered cases, and 230 active cases, of which nine are hospitalized, and 221 are isolating at home.

Laurel County has had five COVID-19 fatalities with the most recent death happening on Aug. 6.

Between March 24 and June 4, there were 22 COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Laurel County. Since June 9, there have been an additional 430 cases reported there, according to the Laurel County Health Department.

Out of the 452 Laurel County cases, 50 patients were under the age of 18, 111 patients were ages 18-30, 76 patients were ages 31-40, 61 patients were ages 41-50, 63 patients were ages 51-60, 61 patients were ages 61-70, 20 patients were ages 71-80 and 10 patients were over age 80.

A total of 10,104 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Laurel County as of Aug. 10.

Bell County

The Bell County Health Department reported seven additional COVID-19 cases Wednesday, including two individual independent cases and five long-term care cases.

The Bell County Health Department reported four new cases Tuesday, four new cases Monday, three new cases Saturday, four new cases Friday, and seven new cases Thursday.

Bell County now has 82 active cases, including 11 who are hospitalized: a 66-year-old male, a 74-year-old male, a 70-year-old male, an 83-year-old male, a 79-year-old female, a 72-year-old male, a 73-year-old female, a 75-year-old male, another 75-year-old male, a 69-year-old female and an 87-year-old female.

Bell County has had a total of 322 COVID-19 cases, including 240 people, who have recovered.

The Bell County Health Department reported its sixth fatality on Aug. 10. All fatalities have involved patients, who ranged in age from 68 to 85.

Whitley County

The Whitley County Health Department only reported one COVID-19 case Wednesday, which comes on the heels of reports Tuesday and Monday that Whitley County only had two COVID-19 cases diagnosed on each of those days.

The Whitley County Health Department also reported seven new cases Friday, and eight new cases Thursday.

Whitley County now has a total of 165 COVID-19 cases, including 84 active cases. Four Whitley County residents are isolating in the hospital, and 80 Whitley County residents are isolating at home.

A total of 80 Whitley County patients have been released from isolation.

Between April 6 and May 17, Whitley County had 11 COVID-19 cases diagnosed, all of whom have been released from isolation.

Since June 8, Whitley County has had 154 additional cases diagnosed.

On July 21, Whitley County reported its only COVID-19 death.

Out of the 165 Whitley County cases, 20 patients were under the age of 18, 10 patients were ages 18-20, 32 patients were ages 21-30, 35 patients were ages 31-40, 21 patients were ages 41-50, 17 patients were ages 51-60, 13 patients were ages 61-70, 14 patients were age 71-80, and three patients were over age 80.

McCreary County

The Lake Cumberland District Health Department reported three new COVID-19 cases in McCreary County Wednesday. The new McCreary County cases involve a 22-year-old male, who is self-isolated but still symptomatic, a 26-year-old female female, who is self-isolated and asymptomatic, and a 42-year-old male, who is self-isolated but still symptomatic.

One McCreary County COVID-19 case was released from isolation Wednesday.

The Lake Cumberland District Health Department reported one new case in McCreary County Monday, which involved a 48-year-old male, who is self-isolating but still symptomatic.

McCreary County has had a total of 49 COVID-19 cases, including 12 active cases of whom 11 are self-isolated and one is hospitalized. 37 McCreary County cases have recovered.

So far, McCreary County has had no COVID-19 deaths.

Statewide cases

Gov. Andy Beshear reported 1,163 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, including 39 cases involving children ages five and under, and seven new deaths.

“I believe today will be our single highest number of positive cases that we’ve had. Today we’ve set a record that we never wanted to set, going over 1,000 cases,” Beshear said Wednesday. “Now, if there is good news in this, it is with the number of tests with the seven-day average, our positivity rate is actually down a little bit. But we need to get that much, much lower.”

Statewide there have been 36,945 total positive cases of the COVID-19 virus in Kentucky, and 790 total deaths from the virus. More than 717,370 people in Kentucky have been tested for COVID-19, and at least 8,893 people have reported that they have recovered, according to the latest information on the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s official COVID-19 website.