Lawrence joins other counties in red zone

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

Lawrence County became a red-zone location Monday as COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise in the Big Sandy region.

While Johnson, Floyd and Martin counties were listed in the red zone last week, Lawrence County remained orange until Monday, when its COVID-19 incidence rate was 33.6.

The change prompted the Lawrence County Health Department to resume posting its COVID-19 updates twice a week. The reports will be posted on the agency’s Facebook page on Mondays and Thursdays.

In addition to Lawrence County, other incidence rates Monday were 61.8 in Johnson County, 79.1 in Floyd County and 44.7 in Martin County.

A total of 371 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the four counties from Tuesday, Aug. 3, through Monday, Aug. 9.

New cases included 56 in Lawrence County, 112 in Johnson County, 160 in Floyd County and 43 in Martin County.

Active cases as of Monday were 50 in Lawrence County, 148 in Johnson County and 49 in Martin County. The Floyd County Health Department did not report active-case totals Monday; the county’s number of those cases on Sunday was 380.

Total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020 include 1,561 in Lawrence County, 2,526 in Johnson County, 4,031 in Floyd County and 1,193 in Martin County.

The seven-day incidence rate is calculated by taking the total number of unique cases in each county over the past seven days, divided by seven to get a daily average, divided by the U.S. Census Bureau county population, and multiplied by 100,000 to get the incidence per 100,000 people, according to the Team Kentucky website.

The cases counted each day are based on the date an investigation was opened in the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). Duplicate cases are removed before the calculation, so each positive case is only included once.

State and local health department data will vary for a variety of reasons, including data entry timing, communication processes and seven-day averaging.

Red or critical counties are those with more than 25 COVID-19 cases per day per 100,000 people, while orange or accelerated counties have between 10 and 25 cases.

Recommendations by state health officials to reduce the number of cases in red-zone counties include increasing vaccination efforts to reach unvaccinated individuals, encouraging masking and social distancing, encouraging medically vulnerable individuals to avoid social activities with unvaccinated persons, considering postponing large public events, and engaging community partners and stakeholders to implement a strong communication plan.