Paperwork catch up in Fayette County skews state new COVID numbers

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – When the coronavirus cases started to surge in Fayette County in late July and August, the county got behind on logging those numbers into the federal reporting system which feeds the state numbers.

How that delay skewed the state numbers took up a big part of Wednesday’s daily briefing by the governor. But on other topics, Gov. Andy Beshear continued to encourage other state leaders to lead by example and wear masks and again urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others to approve another stimulus package.

The process of inputting new case information into the federal web site takes 30 to 45 minutes per case. The more cases, the further the Lexington Fayette County Health Department got behind.

The numbers it was reporting on its Web site each day were accurate and current. It was the state totals that were being thrown off.

The department recently hired more people and the state loaned them some to get caught up.

Wednesday, that process resulted in the state reporting 2,398 new coronavirus cases. In reality, only 926 were new cases.

The remaining 1,472 were Fayette’s historical cases from the last six weeks, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Except for a “couple of hundred” that still have to be caught up, the numbers now will sync at all levels, according to the health department and the state.

Together, Wednesday’s numbers push the state total to 76,587.

“The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, with assistance from the Kentucky Department for Public Health, has developed a way to enter more than 1,900 of Lexington’s COVID-19 cases into a state system. This will allow the state’s reported COVID-19 case numbers for Lexington to more closely align with Lexington’s cumulative case count,” Health Department spokesperso Kevin Hall said.

“We are appreciative of the community’s understanding as we moved through this delay. As previously stated, the delay only existed with data entry; there were no delays in contacting positive cases and close contacts in Lexington.

The state also reported five deaths Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,223. The state had one death each in Fayette, Whitley, Harlan, Greenup and Henderson counties.

Area counties continue to be among those with double-digit increases Wednesday, including 25 in Laurel, 21 in Scott, 16 in Knox, 15 in Whitley, 14 in Shelby, 13 in Franklin and 12 in Boyle.

The outbreak at the Thomas Hood Veterans Home in Wilmore in Jessamine County continues with 25 veterans now testing positive for the disease. Nine have been moved to the Veterans Hospital in Lexington.

Extensive cleaning and testing is ongoing at the center. A special COVID wing has been established to keep positive cases isolated from others.

While the positivity rate is down slightly, some other critical numbers continue to inch upwards. A total of 672 people are hospitalized, 161 are in ICU and 79 are on ventilators.

Last week, the state was seeing a floating daily average of about 440 people in the hospital, Stack said. Monday, that was up to 469, Tuesday it was 503 and Wednesday it was 541.

“It shows just how bad and fast this disease can get. We can’t let out medical system get overwhelmed,” Stack noted, citing Wisconsin which is opening a 500-bed emergency hospital to handle the escalation of cases requiring hospitalization there.

When a reporter asked about some state officials in the Capitol not wearing masks or requiring their staffs to wear masks, Beshear said those are the people who “most should be” leading by example.

“Everyone in this Capitol should be wearing a mask and getting their temperature checked. If they aren’t, that wouldn’t be acceptable a all<‘ the governor stated, noting in particular that Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who has sued the governor over the mask mandate and all other executive orders, should be wearing one in his office.

“If he is not then he should be,” Beshear said of Cameron.

“How about we just set a good example…when you are a leader and don’t do it, others think they don’t have to either,” Beshear said.

“If we accept a little inconvenience, we can get it done,” he said later, referring to turning around the current surge that has produced three straight weeks of record new numbers.

As for Congress and its abandoning efforts to reach an agreement on a stimulus package, Beshear said without one, the state and nation’s economy could be in trouble going into the winter. Top economic analysts and experts said the same thing earlier in the week.

“It’s a shame that we are letting an upcoming election stop us from getting things done…it’s time to get everyone in a room and get it done, reach an agreement and do their jobs,” he concluded.