One county in orange zone as cases drop

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

One local county is out of the red as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to drop in the Big Sandy region.

Monday’s state incidence-rate map showed Johnson County in the orange with a 20.6 rate, while Lawrence, Floyd and Martin counties remain in the red with rates of 51.3, 52.2 and 39.6, respectfully.

A total of 298 new coronavirus cases were reported in the four counties between Tuesday, Oct. 12, and Monday, Oct. 18.

New cases included 57 in Lawrence County, 44 in Johnson County, 150 in Floyd County and 47 in Martin County.

Active cases included 43 in Lawrence County, 104 in Johnson County, 207 in Floyd County and 91 in Martin County.

Johnson County reported three COVID-19-related deaths — two on Oct. 15 and one on Oct. 16 — and Lawrence County reported one on Oct. 14.

A total of 15,674 coronavirus cases have been reported in the four counties since the pandemic began in March 2020, including 2,556 in Lawrence, 4,134 in Johnson, 6,960 in Floyd and 2,024 in Martin.

Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that Kentucky’s COVID-19 data is trending in the right direction as residents continue to get vaccinated.

“In today’s report, what we see is just about everything is moving in the right direction and actually at a speed – the decrease in cases and in hospitalizations, ventilator use and ICUs – that is significant,” Beshear said. “It is a real trend, a positive trend. It has not plateaued. It is moving downward, which is reason for optimism. But our deaths, which trail cases and hospitalizations, ICUs and ventilators, remain too high.”