Floyd, Magoffin and Johnson only counties in Kentucky where CDC advises higher-risk residents to wear masks in public

CDC map shows, in yellow, counties where higher-risk residents are advised to wear masks in public.

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map of counties that pose the greatest risk of Covid-19 shows three adjoining Eastern Kentucky counties with a medium level of coronavirus transmission: Floyd, Magoffin and Johnson. The rest of the state has a low level of the virus.

The new CDC map hadn't been released at the time of Gov. Andy Beshear's Thursday news conference, but he said he was pleased that last week's map was largely green, indicating a low level of transmission. One county, Anderson, was in yellow; officials there said that was due to slow reporting.

Beshear also noted that Kentucky's weekly coronavirus cases and hospital numbers had dropped again, even though the share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus ticked up to 2.27% from 1.97%.

"Covid continues in a general decline across Kentucky," he said, adding later, "This ought to make us all pretty happy. Enjoy being together, do make good decisions, and make decisions that you are comfortable with about whether to wear a mask or not. But it looks like it's going to be a pretty good spring and I hope everybody enjoys it and doesn't take it for granted."

The CDC says people in Floyd, Magoffin and Johnson counties who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe illness from the virus should talk to a health-care provider about whether they need to wear a mask or take other precautions. 

The three counties are among 175 counties and county equivalents in the nation at the medium-transmission level, up from 123 in last week's report. 

The CDC determines risk based on cases and health care capacity. Its color-coded map uses green for counties with low risk of transmission, yellow for counties with medium risk and red for counties with high risk. The ratings are based on new coronavirus cases, Covid-19 hospitalizations and the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by Covid-19 patients.