Three area counties in red zone

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

The Big Sandy region is again seeing red as the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to rise.

Johnson, Floyd and Martin counties are in the red zone on the state’s latest COVID-19 incidence rate map, with Lawrence County being in the orange.

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.

Incidence rates as of Monday were 20.5 in Lawrence County, 29 in Johnson County, 69.4 in Floyd County and 37 in Martin County.

A total of 334 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the four counties between Monday, July 26, and Monday, Aug. 2.

New cases included 25 in Lawrence County, 76 in Johnson County, 197 in Floyd County and 36 in Martin County.

Lawrence County’s case total was from July 27; the health department had not released the latest numbers as of press time Tuesday.

The total number of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began in March 2020 includes 1,505 in Lawrence County, with 32 active; 2,396 in Johnson County, with 81 active; 3,828 in Floyd County, with 288 active; and 1,150 in Martin County, with 33 active.

The Johnson County Health Department reported two additional COVID-19-related deaths last week — one on July 31 and the other on Aug. 1.

The health department reported July 26 that the majority of Johnson County’s new cases had not been vaccinated.

“As cases continue to surge, if you have not received your Covid vaccine, please consider doing so,” the agency said. “It is our best line of defense against this virus.”

The Floyd County Health Department said Monday that four of the 20 new cases reported that day had been vaccinated.

“Most of the positive cases who are vaccinated (breakthrough cases) are experiencing less severe symptoms than those who are not vaccinated,” the health department said.

The agency said 20 cases were hospitalized as of Monday and most were not vaccinated or had received only one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.