POSITIVITY RATES SPIKES OVER THE WEEKEND AFTER 7 WEEK DECLINE
WILL NEW DELTA-PLUS VARIANT RUN BY THE HOLIDAYS INTO THE NEW YEAR 2022?
NOVEMBER 3, 2021 -written by WADE QUEEN
There were sixty-seven (67) new COVID-19 cases in Lawrence County for October 22-November 1, 2021. Ten (10) of those new cases were individuals who had been fully vaccinated and were breakthrough cases. One (1) person also had to be hospitalized.
The age range of the new cases were from a nine (9) month old infant to a 79 year old person. Only 15 cases of the 67 new cases were individuals who were 50 years old or older.
As of November the tally of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lawrence County stands at:
Confirmed Positive: 2,666; Active: 47; Recovered: 2,579′ Deaths: 40.
WITH BREAKTHROUGH CASES ON THE RISE, GOVERNOR BESHEAR SAYS VACCINATED KENTUCKIANS NEED TO GET BOOSTER SHOT
Governor Andy Beshear held a COVID-19 update on Monday, November 1, In his news conference, Gov. Beshear urged Kentuckians to get their COVID-19 vaccine boosters shots if they are eligible, with all Kentuckians eligible to receive a booster of the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
“You really need to get your booster, because we are seeing hospitalizations among vaccinated people going up month after month, which suggests waning immunity,” said Gov. Beshear. “Getting your booster is incredibly important. I am going to get mine live Thursday when we do the Team Kentucky update. The vaccines work. You need a booster for the vaccines to continue to work at the level that we need them to.
Monday, November 1, was a day marked where the total number of COVID-19 deaths topped the five million mark worldwide and U.S deaths are nearing 750,000, solidifying Governor Andy Beshear’s urging of Kentuckians who have already been vaccinated to get their booster shot as soon as they are eligible.
The governor said the rising number of so-called breakthrough cases are not just those who may be predisposed due to a weakened immune system.
“We also think waning immunity is a real factor,” Beshear said. “We can look at every month since the largest portion of our vaccinations, and we can see an increase in the percentage of overall cases that are made up of vaccinated people. In other words, more individuals are getting COVID or being hospitalized by COVID.”
He pointed out that in May, around just over 5% of cases were those who were fully vaccinated, but that number rose to more than 20% by the end of October.
“I think when you look at this growth, the only rational explanation is that the immunity does lessen a little bit over time,” Beshear noted. “The delta variant is part of it, but this means you need to get your booster. From all the data we’re seeing, we think we can turn this line back around and get it back down to where it was in March.”
He also said hospitalizations from breakthrough COVID cases had doubled from 8% to 16% during that time.
Federal regulators have only approved a booster shot for those who have a serious underlying health condition, are 65 or older, live in a long-term care setting, or who are exposed to a lot of people in their line of work; but Beshear said he would like to see that expanded to everyone, six months after being fully vaccinated.
“The effectiveness would be back at the 90+% level, people would be less likely to catch COVID, and be less likely to spread it. We have seen how almost normal our country can be right after vaccinations, and this helps us, and even better protects those who have not gotten vaccinated.
Monday’s numbers saw 568 new cases reported to state public health officials, making the pandemic total 745,353. There were 26 new deaths, raising that to 9,814 Kentuckians who have lost their lives due to COVID.
The state’s positivity rate, which had dropped to 4.98% over the weekend, rose to 5.03% on Monday, something the governor said he will be keeping an eye on, after seven weeks of declines.
As of Monday, November 1, there were 772 Kentuckians hospitalized. Of them, 249 are in ICU and 138 on a ventilator. All three numbers show a continued drop. 132 of the new cases were children 18 and younger.
47 counties across the state are in the red zone on the state’s COVID-19 incidence rate map. Russell County leads the state with an incidence rate of 121.1 per 100,000 people. Hickman County is the only county in the green, with a rate of 0.
FOR THE INFORMATION ON THE NEXT NEW COVID VARIANT THAT COULD LIKELY PUT LUMPS OF COAL FOR EVERYONE OVER THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS AND INTO 2022, YOU CAN READ THE LATEST ON THE DELTA-VARIANT PLUS HERE AND HERE.
That darn Trick or Treat.