County moves out of red as COVID-19 cases fall

Muhlenberg County is continuing to see a decline in new COVID-19 cases, and has moved from red to orange in positive test rates in the past week. The county went into the red zone on Nov. 12, 2020 and remained there until Feb. 13. Red zone counties are those with 25 or more average daily cases per 100,000 residents. Muhlenberg County currently has 17.3 cases per 100,000.

Feb. 12 was also the first day with no new cases in the county in five months, since Sept. 4, 2020.

Test positivity rates are dropping around thestate. Kentucky now has 44 of its 120 counties rising out of the red zone. Muhlenberg County joins neighboring McLean, Ohio, Todd, and Christian counties in the orange zone.

Muhlenberg County Health Department director Cathy Bethel said the holidays, and gatherings in general, have had the most impact on the county’s COVID-19 infection rates. Birthday parties, celebrations, and gatherings with family and friends have given the virus a chance to spread throughout the community.

With the end of the holiday season, Bethel said she is optimistic numbers will continue on a downward trend, but people still need to practice social distancing, wear masks and wash hands well, in order to keep the virus from spreading.

“The biggest thing citizens can do to keep us on this path is to minimize contact with others, outside of their immediate household,” Bethel said. “We need 80% of our population to be vaccinated to try and obtain herd immunity. Until that occurs, we need to follow state and CDC guidelines to get to where we all want to be.”

Bethel said the current supply of vaccines is limited, so this may take some time. As more vaccine is manufactured, and new vaccines are approved, this process will speed up.

At this time, the health department is again scheduling vaccinations for those in Phase 1A and 1B, which includes healthcare workers, first responders, K-12 employees, and people who are age 70 and above. Call the department at 270-754-3200 if you are in those catagories and have not yet received the vaccine.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced last week a 28% increase in the amount of doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been made available to the state in the past three weeks. The state has reported approximately 530,000 Kentuckians have been vaccinated so far, which is about 12% of the total population.

For more information about Kentucky’s vaccination plan, to sign up for notifications when you are eligible, and find out where to go for the COVID-19 vaccine, go to vaccine.ky.gov.