Whitley, Laurel and Bell counties all report new COVID-19 cases Wednesday

Whitley, Laurel and Bell counties all reported new COVID-19 deaths Wednesday.

The Whitley County Health Department reported its fourth COVID-19 fatality Wednesday.

Whitley County’s first COVID-19 death happened on July 21, the second happened on Aug. 20, and the third happened on Sept. 28.

The Whitley County Health Department reported nine new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, seven new cases Tuesday, 29 new cases Monday, 37 new cases Sunday, nine new cases Saturday, 21 new cases Friday, and 28 new cases Thursday.

Whitley County has had a total of 560 COVID-19 cases.

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 549 additional cases diagnosed.

Whitley County has 185 active cases, including five people isolated in the hospital, and 180 isolated at home. A total of 371 cases have been released from isolation.

Out of the 560 Whitley County cases, 47 patients were under the age of 18, 59 patients were ages 18-20, 114 patients were ages 21-30, 69 patients were ages 31-40, 77 patients were ages 41-50, 58 patients were ages 51-60, 49 patients were ages 61-70, 49 patients were age 71-80, and 38 patients were over age 80.

Whitley County’s COVID–19 current case incidence rate is 45.3, which places it in the red category. Only Henderson County at 50.2 and Fulton County at 47.9 have higher incidence rates in Kentucky than Whitley County.

A county with a COVID-19 rate over 25 cases per 100,000 people is considered critical, which is signified on the state map with the color red. A county with a rate between 10-25 cases per 100,000 people is considered accelerated and is shown as orange on the state map. A county with 1-10 cases per 100,000 people is considered to have community spread and is signified on the state map with the color yellow. A county with less than one case per 100,000 people is considered on track and is signified by the color green on the state map.

The incidence rate for each county may be found online at www.kycovid19.com.

Currently there are no counties on the state map labeled green.

Laurel County

The Laurel County Health Department reported its eighth COVID-19 death Wednesday.

“Our condolences go out to the family of the 91-year-old female, who was one of our previously reported cases. We also have two previously reported cases that are now hospitalized,” the health department wrote in a release.

The Laurel County Health Department reported 16 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, 18 new cases Tuesday, 16 new cases Monday, five new cases Sunday, and 11 new cases Saturday, 35 new COVID-19 cases Friday, and 14 new cases Thursday.

Wednesday’s new cases involve: a 55-year-old male, a 60-year old female, a 41-year-old female, a 39-year old female, a 24-year old male, a 32-year old female, a 34-year old female, a 44-year old female, a 69-year-old female, a 32-year-old male, a 49-year-old female, a 56-year-old male, a 61-year-old female, a 51-year-old female, a 32-year-old male and a 44-year-old male.

The Laurel County Health Department has reported a total of 1,035 COVID-19 cases, including: 697 recovered cases, and 330 active cases, of which 14 are currently hospitalized. A total of 78 of the active cases occurred in a congregate setting.

Between March 24 and June 4, there were 22 COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Laurel County. Since June 9, there have been an additional 1,013 cases reported there, according to the Laurel County Health Department.

Out of the 1,035 Laurel County cases, 114 patients were under the age of 18, 206 patients were ages 18-30, 154 patients were ages 31-40, 142 patients were ages 41-50, 152 patients were ages 51-60, 135 patients were ages 61-70, 80 patients were ages 71-80 and 52 patients were over age 80.

A total of 18,573 COVID-19 tests had been performed in Laurel County as of Oct. 5.

Laurel County’s COVID–19 incidence rate is 28.4, placing it in the red category.

Bell County

The Bell County Health Department reported its 19^th COVID-19 fatality Wednesday. All of Bell County’s COVID-19 fatalities have ranged in age from 62-97. Bell County’s last COVID-19 death was on Sept. 30.

The Bell County Health Department reported six new individual cases Wednesday, two new individual cases Tuesday, one new COVID-19 case Monday, two new cases Sunday, no new cases Saturday, eight new cases Friday, and seven new cases Thursday.

Bell County has had a total of 530 COVID-19 cases with three people currently hospitalized, who range in age from 56-82.

Bell County currently has 46 active cases, including: 35 active individual cases and 11 active long-term care cases.

Bell County’s COVID–19 incidence rate is 6.6 placing it in the yellow category.

Knox County

The Knox County Health Department reported 36 new positive COVID-19 cases Wednesday, which include two new positive cases involving children.

“We have been notified that 24 of these cases are from a congregate setting. We encourage all community members to remember to use proper preventative measures at all times,” the health department wrote in a release.

The Knox County Health Department reported three new cases Tuesday, 24 new cases Monday, including one case involving a child, two new cases Friday, and 10 new cases Thursday.

Knox County has a total of 593 COVID-19 cases, including 114 active 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 583 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Knox County.

Knox County has had a total of 11 COVID-19 deaths with the most recent death occurring on Aug. 25.

Knox County’s COVID–19 current incidence rate is 24.3 placing it in the orange category.

McCreary County

The Lake Cumberland District Health Department has reported a total of 216 COVID-19 cases in McCreary County as of Oct. 6.

Currently there are 36 active McCreary County cases, including three cases that are hospitalized with the remainder in self-isolation. A total of 179 McCreary County cases are classified as not contagious, and there has been one McCreary County COVID-19 fatality.

McCreary County’s COVID–19 incidence rate is 24.0 placing it in the orange category.

School cases

(Editor’s note: The following information is based upon Oct. 6 data, which was the most recent school data available on the state’s website as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.)

The Bell County School District has reported a total of three student cases and four staff COVID-19 cases, all of which are still active.

The Corbin Independent School District has reported one recovered student case, five active student cases, and one staff case that is listed as recovered.

The East Bernstadt Independent School District has reported a total of one student and one staff case, which are both recovered.

The Knox County School District has reported a total of one student and two staff cases, all of which are recovered.

The Laurel County School District has reported a total of 31 student cases, including 29 active cases and two cases that have recovered. There are a total of 12 staff COVID-19 cases, all of which have recovered.

The McCreary County School District has reported a total of 10 student cases, all of which are recovered. There have been a total of eight staff COVID-19 cases, out of which three are active and five are recovered.

The Middlesboro Independent School District has reported two recovered student cases, and one recovered staff case.

The Pineville Independent School District has reported a total of one student COVID-19 case, which is recovered, and no staff cases.

The Whitley County School District has reported one student and one staff case, which are both recovered.

The Williamsburg Independent School District has reported a total of three student COVID-19 cases that are all recovered, and no staff cases.

College cases

As of Oct. 6, the University of the Cumberlands had reported on its main campus in Williamsburg a total of two recovered student cases, and 37 active student cases. No staff members have been diagnosed with COVID-19 so far.

As of Oct. 6, Union College had reported eight recovered student cases and 36 active student cases. There are three recovered staff cases.

Statewide cases

On Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear reported 2,398 new COVID-19 cases, and five new deaths.

Beshear noted that the large increase Wednesday is due to an upload of a significant backlog of case data from one jurisdiction. The majority of these cases are from weeks past. The actual number of new cases Wednesday is 926.

Statewide there have been 76,587 positive cases of the COVID-19 virus in Kentucky, and 1,223 total deaths from the virus. A total of 1,568,542 people in Kentucky have been tested for COVID-19, and at least 12,800 people have reported that they have recovered, according to the latest information on the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s official COVID-19 website.