Area case numbers up slightly

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

COVID-19 case numbers rose slightly in Lawrence, Johnson, Floyd and Martin counties between Tuesday, Nov. 9, and Monday, Nov. 15.

A total of 170 cases were reported in the four counties during the period, including 36 in Lawrence, 45 in Johnson, 67 in Floyd and 22 in Martin.

During the previous period, from Nov. 2 through Nov. 8, 164 new coronavirus cases were reported.

A total of 229 cases were active as of Monday, including 34 in Lawrence County, 54 in Johnson County, 105 in Floyd County and 36 in Martin County.

No new COVID-19-related deaths were reported during the seven-day period. Coronavirus-related deaths total 148 in Lawrence, Johnson and Martin counties since the pandemic began, including 45 in Lawrence, 67 in Johnson and 36 in Martin. Floyd County does not release daily numbers for COVID-19-related deaths.

A total of 16,509 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the four counties since March 2020, including 2,729 in Lawrence, 4,332 in Johnson, 7,295 in Floyd and 2,153 in Martin.

Johnson County was in the orange zone on Monday’s incidence rate map, while Lawrence, Floyd and Martin counties remained in the red. Incidence rates on Monday were 18 in Johnson, 25.7 in Floyd, 29.4 in Martin and 32.6 in Lawrence.

Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that new COVID-19 cases in Kentucky appeared to be hitting a plateau, after declining for seven weeks in a row.

“The top line here is it does look like we’ve plateaued. That’s not a reason to think that there is another surge,” Beshear said. “It looks like we have plateaued on the positivity rate at about 5.5%. We are still at a very serious level.”