After more than two months of pretty steady decline, new Covid-19 cases in Kentucky increased more than 50% last week

New York Times map shows rates of new coronavirus cases; for the interactive version, click here.

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

After declining for nine of the last 10 weeks, new coronavirus cases in Kentucky increased by more than half last week.

The state Department for Public Health's weekly report for the latest Monday-to-Sunday reporting period said there were 5,044 new cases last week, or 720 per day. That was nearly 56% higher than the previous week, when the state reported 462 per day. 

New cases in Kentuckians 18 and younger made up only 13% of the total, half of what was reported the prior week. 

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus in the last seven days was 7.64%, down just a bit from the 8.5% reported the week before. This figure does not include at-home tests. 

Kentucky hospitals reported 262 patients with Covid-19 Monday, down nine from the week before; 41 of them were in intensive care, up 13; and 16 were in need of mechanical ventilation, up one. 

The state's new-case rate was 9.7 per 100,000 residents, down slightly from 10.02 a week earlier. The top 10 counties were Leslie, 23.1 per 100,000; Russell, 23.1; Letcher, 22.5; Knott, 22.2; Washington, 17.7; Nelson, 17.3; Cumberland, 17.3; Floyd, 17.3; Perry, 17.2; and Trigg, 16.6.

The New York Times ranks Kentucky's infection rate ninth among the states, with a 39% decrease in cases in the last two weeks. Excluding Puerto Rico's county equivalents, The Times places Letcher, Floyd, Elliott, Boyd and McCreary counties in the top 10 new-case rates in the nation in the last seven days. (The Times's figures differ from state figures because of differences in data gathering and processing.)

The state attributed 70 more deaths to Covid-19 last week, increasing the pandemic death toll to 17,261.