The highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus is showing no signs of slowing down in Kentucky, it seems.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear shared some sobering figures during a media briefing on Monday, saying that the Commonwealth has experienced 38 straight days of its COVID-19 test positivity rate increasing (the positivity rate is the number of people who test positive out of all coronavirus tests performed).
The state’s positivity rate has sharply risen to 9.77% as of Aug. 2. It had been 1.79% in June.
“Every time that curve gets more worrisome, we are doubling faster, we are tripling faster. It gets out of control quicker and quicker,” Beshear said.
“The Delta variant is spreading like wildfire. This variant is spreading faster than anything we have seen. If you’re unvaccinated, you are at significant risk,” Beshear added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labels most counties in Kentucky and Ohio that are near Cincinnati as “substantial” or “high risk” for COVID-19. As of Monday morning, Hamilton County plus Butler, Clermont and Warren counties in Ohio are listed as substantial. In Kentucky, Boone County is listed as high risk, while the risk in Kenton and Campbell counties is labeled as substantial.
As CityBeat has previously reported, the majority of counties throughout the rest of Kentucky are high risk, the CDC’s highest level.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus has been responsible for the sharp uptick in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and scientists warn that this strain is much more dangerous than Alpha, the original virus. People infected with Delta carry 1,000 times more of the virus, which makes it easier to transmit among others when speaking, singing, sneezing or breathing hard, particularly within indoor areas. Health experts say that Delta is more than twice as easy to spread than Alpha.
Unvaccinated individuals are at the highest risk for severe infection and substantial health issues, experts say, though some vaccinated individuals have also become infected due to Delta’s highly contagious nature. Symptoms and rates are less severe in individuals who are fully vaccinated with a Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, though. According to the CDC, a “fully vaccinated” person is one who is two weeks past their second dose of a two-dose vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine (J&J).
COVID-19 vaccines are not yet authorized for people age 11 and younger.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, recently said that more people need to get an authorized COVID-19 vaccine, as the virus could mutate further and become even more infectious and dangerous. She added that the country’s overall low vaccination rates enabled the Delta variant in the first place.
“This could have been avoided with higher vaccination coverage in this country,” she said.
As of Aug. 2, 52% of Kentucky’s population has gotten at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. In Kenton County, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, 55.71% of the population has had at least one dose of an authorized vaccine.
But many counties within Kentucky are seeing much lower vaccination rates, which troubles health experts because of Delta’s highly infectious nature. In Spencer County, for example, only 24% of the population has been vaccinated at least once.
On Monday, Beshear said 22,663 new Kentuckians received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine over the weekend.
Eric Friedlander, secretary for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, joined Beshear Monday to announce that Kentucky now requires universal masking in all state-run health care facilities, including in nursing homes for veterans, due to the spread of Delta. In addition, anyone who is unvaccinated and working with the public within these facilities must be tested for coronavirus at least twice a week.
“Despite all of our efforts, this virus has claimed lives in our facilities, just as it has in facilities across America, and it threatens to do so again,” Friedlander said. “Increasing the vaccination rate and/or testing rates for staff is a critical next step to ensure that we defeat this COVID variant and provide the best protection possible for the people who receive care in our facilities.”
Beshear pushed again for more Kentuckians to get a free Pfizer, Moderna or COVID-19 vaccine to slow the Delta variant and protect those who are most at risk.
“We want to get back to normal. Those who are not vaccinated are preventing us from getting back to normal,” Beshear said pointedly. “If you’re unvaccinated, your chances of being in the hospital are significantly higher than those who are vaccinated.”
“I would hate for us to have done so well for so long, to end up with the type of increase we have fought so hard against,” he added.
Beshear also strongly urged Kentucky schools to require masks as students and staff prepare for the new academic year that begins soon. The CDC recently revised its mask guidance to recommend universal masking in all schools K-12 due to the high transmissibility and spread of the Delta variant.
“How we make decisions has to come from one simple place: What gives us the best chance to have our kids in school the maximum number of days in the midst of a pandemic? That is our North Star,” Beshear said.
But not all schools are heeding warnings from Beshear or from scientists.
As WLKY-TV reported Monday:
Over in Carter County Schools in eastern Kentucky, the school district there is having to delay the start of the school year because a large number of school-age children are out with COVID-19. Still, the school district said it has no plans to require masks.
Beshear, upon hearing of the news in Carter County, didn’t mince words.
“I really hope smarter heads prevail,” Beshear said.
“That means that they are doing it in the complete absence, in contradiction, of all public health advice,” Beshear said of Carter County.
Find free COVID-19 vaccines in Ohio at coronavirus.ohio.gov and in Kentucky at kycovid19.ky.gov.
Watch Beshear’s coronavirus briefing below.
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This article appears in Jul 21 – Aug 4, 2021.