COVID-19 cases ticking up in Kentucky

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - COVID-19 cases are starting to tick up in Kentucky. It’s following a nationwide trend where even some hospitals are filling up again.

Laurel County was one of the counties that saw a lot of COVID-19 cases but a low vaccination rate. The director of the local health department says they have seen a slight increase in cases over the past week but nothing significant.

Dr. Shelley Stanko is the chief medical officer for CHI Saint Joseph Health Care in London. She says they currently have one COVID-19 patient and over the past few weeks they’ve only seen single-digit numbers. In fact, it remains the lowest number of patients since the pandemic began.

While there have been increased cases across the nation, she says she’s aware of the increase but, still, for them, the relative numbers are very low.

“Kentucky rates published right now are 16.1 per 100,000. Laurel County has 60,000 residents roughly. When you do the math on that, it means we are having maybe three or four cases a day,” said Dr. Stanko.

A month ago Laurel County was seeing about 16 to 18 per week, with about 35 to 40 right now. But she says that pales in comparison to the hundreds in the delta and omicron surges.

Health leaders say most admitted to the hospital are still those that are unvaccinated.

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