Gov says hospital capacity strained across Ky. with omicron

There will likely be more new COVID-19 cases in Kentucky this week than any other week of the pandemic, thanks to the highly-contagious omicron variant, but there’s hope those numbers could start going down in the near future.

Governor Andy Beshear reiterated during a Thursday morning briefing that states that started their omicron surge before Kentucky are now starting to see a decline.

The recent spike in COVID cases has also come with a spike in hospitalizations and Governor Beshear says that’s straining hospital capacity in many instances. While there are growing numbers of breakthrough infections of vaccinated individuals with omicron, the vaccine continues to provide good protection against hospitalization.

The governor says 2.8 million Kentuckians have been vaccinated—including 68 percent of everyone eligible and 75 percent of everyone 18 and older.