Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack says the coronavirus variants seen in the United Kingdom and South Africa have been identified in at least 15 Kentucky counties.
Dr. Stack said that confirms the importance of getting more and more Kentuckians vaccinated against COVID-19. “By not getting vaccinated, it has more and more of an opportunity to mutate and to change and shear blind luck will ultimately help the virus to learn how to be more effective. By pure random chance it will get more effective and it will still pose a big danger to us,” said Stack.
Governor Beshear reported 310 new coronavirus cases Monday along with 11 additional deaths. Eight of those eleven deaths occurred prior to March. The positivity rate stands at 2.89%.
Many school districts across Kentucky are holding their spring breaks this month. Although cases in popular tourist states to the south of Kentucky are far less than peaks earlier in the pandemic, Governor Beshear said the risk to bring more cases back to Kentucky remains a concern. During his briefing the governor also said reaching so-called herd immunity from the virus is not Kentucky specific. “I don’t think there is such a thing as a Kentucky herd immunity. I hope there is, but I really think we have to get it across the country. In other words, we got to have Tennessee and other border states get to those numbers as well,” said Beshear.
In addition to eleven straight weeks of decline when it comes to COVID-19 cases, Beshear noted there is currently no concern about hospital capacity in Kentucky. He credits Kentuckians adherence to preventive measures as the primary reason why no hospital has been completely overrun with coronavirus patients.
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