County passes 5,000 cases of covid-19

Cases of covid-19 topped 5,000 in the county over the weekend, with the Muhlenberg County Health Department reporting a pandemic total of 5,034 cases as of Sept. 27.

The current spike in new cases began in mid-July as the more contagious delta variant began to spread. Muhlenberg County had 873 cases in August, the most in one month since the pandemic began. September will likely match or exceed that number.

Near the end of August, the health department was reporting more than 400 active cases. This number has dropped, hovering around 300 active cases in the past few weeks. Director Cathy Bethel said it’s too early to call that a downward trend. “We may have less than the previous month but our testing is booming here,” Bethel said. “The daily cases are yo-yoing right now.”

When the delta variant began to cause the recent wave of new cases, the county health department began to share data on the vaccination status of those contracting the virus.

Their reporting shows of the 770 cases in September so far, 609 are in unvaccinated people, including 114 children who are too young to receive the vaccine. There were 127 cases reported in those who are fully vaccinated, and 34 cases in those who are partially vaccinated.

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and Kentucky Public Health provide data on statewide and county-level covid-19 cases and have reported a total of 83 deaths in Muhlenberg County since the pandemic began, with six of those deaths occurring this month.

Data shared on the state’s covid-19 dashboard website shows the region, which includes Christian, Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, Hopkins, McLean, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Todd, Union and Webster counties, has 97.3% of all intensive care unit hospital beds in use, with 64.6% of those patients suffering from covid-19.

The county’s current incident rate is 77 cases per 100,000 population. This number is based on the previous seven days. In order for the county to move from the red zone, the incident rate needs to drop below 25 cases per 100,000 population.