KY reports no counties at high COVID level as state prepares to scale back reporting
Kentucky added 2,843 coronavirus cases last week — roughly 300 fewer than the week before — and none of the state’s counties are at the high COVID-19 community level, the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.
With the upcoming expiration of the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency declarations May 11, much of the state’s reporting on the disease will soon be scaled back.
Here’s what to know as the state prepares to move into a new phase of its pandemic response.
Number of Kentucky counties at high COVID level drops to zero
New data from the CDC released Thursday show the number of Kentucky counties with high community levels of COVID-19 has fallen to zero, down from four the previous week.
These levels are based on weekly totals of new infections and hospital admissions, as well as weekly averages of staffed, COVID-occupied hospital beds. The CDC uses the measure to help shape the public health advice it offers. The agency recommends indoor masking at the highest community level.
Meanwhile, another 30 Kentucky counties are at medium, with the remaining 90 counties at low.
The most recent data from the Kentucky Department for Public Health show a positivity rate of 8.78%. That’s a marked shift from the 10.14% the state reported the week before.
Last week, Kentucky recorded 39 new coronavirus deaths, as the state’s virus death toll continues to push above 18,000 since the start of the pandemic.
Kentucky will soon scale back its COVID-19 reporting
With the expiration of the twin COVID emergency declarations May 11, many of the measures Kentuckians have come to depend on will soon disappear or be gradually phased out.
That’s according to state Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack, who announced Thursday upcoming changes to the way the state will report COVID-19 data.
After the federal government lifts its reporting requirements for testing laboratories, “It will become more difficult, if not impossible at times, to calculate test positivity rates that have meaning in the real world,” Stack said.
“Those will probably be discontinued,” he said of the measure.
New cases and incidence data will also become less complete, and there will be changes to the CDC’s community level maps, Stack said.
COVID-19 hospitalizations will also be reported less frequently, though not discontinued right away given a requirement to keep reporting them for another year, Stack added.
Instead, Stack said the state’s website for reporting COVID-19 data will become more “streamlined,” and users will be able to notice a difference starting Monday.
“Starting this coming Monday, March 6, you’ll see less duplication” of the data, he said.
Stack said the state will continue to monitor the spread of COVID-19, but a public report will likely become more seasonal in nature, with plans to create a fall and winter report tracking the spread of respiratory diseases more generally.
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