There were eight new positives reported on Thursday, bringing the county total to 56 over the seven-day period ending yesterday. That is an incidence rate of 88.96 based on the state’s formula to define the number of confirmed cases for every 100,000 people. When a community reachers 25, special precautions are triggered, according to public health guidance.
The county is approaching 1,000 cases, meaning that a full 10 percent of the population has had COVID-19 since records began being kept in April 2020.
Meanwhile, one of Paducah's regional hospitals issued a statement today. It read, "COVID cases continue to spike in the region, Baptist Health and Mercy Health – Lourdes Hospital have an urgent plea for the community:"
It’s more important than ever to follow COVID-19 protocols, including avoiding large gatherings, masking, maintaining social distancing and washing your hands frequently.
“Today, we are at a near all-time high for COVID-19 inpatients, with 41 positive patients in the hospital. Our previous high for COVID-19 patients was 43. We are rapidly approaching critical care capacity and we need our community’s help to stop the spread so we can continue caring for all the patients who come to us,” said Mercy Health – Kentucky Chief Clinical Officer Jenny Franke, MD.
“Baptist Health Paducah is reaching a significant stage in its fight against COVID-19. Testing, numbers of people diagnosed with COVID-19, and hospitalizations are at all-time highs. Now, more than ever, we need the public’s help with masking, distancing and most importantly, getting vaccinated. Bed capacity, in particular our ICU bed capacity, has almost reached its limit. Hospitals across the state and nation are strained, but we are diligently working every day to be able to provide care to our community. Please support our doctors, nurses and the entire medical community, in the coming weeks,” said Brad Housman, Chief Medical Officer, Baptist Health Paducah.
The hospitals also urge anyone who has yet to receive the COVID-19 vaccination to start their vaccination course today.
“In addition to the increase in COVID positivity and need for hospitalization at Lourdes Hospital, we are also seeing a trend towards younger and healthier individuals in the hospital. Given the increase in transmissibility of the Delta variant, we encourage all who are not vaccinated to consult with their personal health care provider or reach out to the health department or CDC website for further information and education. The vast majority of COVID positive individuals requiring hospitalization or dying from COVID related illness are unvaccinated,” said Dr. Franke.
