Governor Andy Beshear reported the lowest number of new cases of COVID-19 for a Tuesday in over a month during a briefing that also included an update on outbreaks at prison facilities in Lyon County.
There were 819 new cases and 24 additional deaths, the positivity rate was 3.87 percent and the governor said hospitalizations, ICU admissions and patients on a ventilator were all down.
Kentucky set another record for vaccinations last week and at least 1,026,047 Kentuckians have received at least their first dose.
The number of inmates and staff in state correctional facilities infected has spiked by over 600 in the last two weeks and Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown says almost all of the new cases have been at the Kentucky State Penitentiary and West Kentucky Correctional Complex in Lyon County.
Two inmates have died from the virus during that time period.
Secretary Brown says they’re going to soon begin vaccinating state inmates who are 70 or older and will utilize the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to inoculate the greater prison population when supplies are available.
Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says an unvaccinated person brought in a new variant of the virus into an Eastern Kentucky nursing home, where 85 percent of residents and only 48 percent of staff had been vaccinated. Only one of five residents who have been hospitalized had been vaccinated.
South of the state line, Tennessee reported 1,342 new cases and 12 additional deaths, with a positivity rate of 9.28 percent.