VACCINE TEAM | Testing for variants, the numbers we display each day

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - With record new COVID-19 cases, many of us have questions about what’s happening. The Vaccine Team is here to answer your questions:

After you test positive for COVID, how do you know which variant you have?

The types of tests we are taking are called viral tests. They tell if you have an infection at the time of the test.

This type of test is called a “viral” test because it simply looks for viral infection.

Additional tests would be needed to determine which variant caused your infection, but the Centers for Disease Control says these typically are not authorized for patient use.

Why are you reporting so many COVID positive results, instead of how many new patients are in the hospital? I am not concerned with how many people have COVID since many people are vaccinated.

At WKYT, we track numerous statistics each day.

In addition to new cases and deaths, changes in the positivity rate, and the number of people vaccinated, we track hospitalizations.

At the top of our COVID tracker, we show the number of people hospitalized, in intensive care, and on a ventilator. Arrows denote whether those numbers increased or decreased compared to the day before.

Bars at the bottom show percentage of people in each of those with COVID, hospitalized for other reasons, and the percentage of beds or ventilators remain open.

Hospitalization numbers are increasing, but not as rapidly as cases.

The concern is those cases could turn into hospitalizations overwhelming Kentucky’s health care system.

“Health care resources are stretched very thin due to both the increased number of COVID patients in hospitals coupled with an even more strained health care workforce due to workers who are themselves out sick with COVID,” said Gov. Andy Beshear.