Governor Andy Beshear announced 1,470 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday in Kentucky and large totals from Thursday and Friday.
There were 4,145 new cases New Year’s Eve and 3,124 new cases New Year’s Day, according to a news release, which says the three days had a combined 75 deaths.
Kentucky has 1,635 COVID patients currently in a hospital, 428 in the ICU and 211 are on a ventilator.
The commonwealth’s positivity rate is 10.79 percent, but the governor says that’s likely elevated by some labs and public testing sites being closed for the holidays—which increases the percentage of tests conducted in medical clinics were patients are experiencing symptoms.
Governor Beshear says, “We will wait and watch closely over the coming days and weeks to gauge the impact the holidays may have had on our recent success in slowing new case growth. With more vaccines arriving in 2021, we have a new sense of hope but right now we must all continue to do our part to stop this virus, including wearing a mask and avoiding large in-person gatherings.”