Vacation ‘hot spots’ bringing virus back to Fayette: Health Department

FAYETTE COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – Building on its report Wednesday to the Lexington-Fayette County Urban Council, the Fayette Health Department warned Thursday the month of July started where it left off in June — bad.

July began with Lexington’s highest one-day increase,excluding the previous outbreak at the Federal Medical Center, with 46 cases, bringing the city’s total to 1,599 since the first case was diagnosed in early Marh.

The county also has recorded 29 deaths related to COVID-19 since the outbreak’s first case in Lexington on March 8. Of the 29, 16 came in June and more than half the total cases came in June.

According to the Health Department, the county’s highest one-day totals,not including the FMC, to date have been:

• 46 cases, July 1
• 41 cases, June 26
• 40 cases, June 24
• 39 cases, June 30
• 39 cases, June 14

About a fourth of Wednesday’s cases were from long-term care facilities. And the department said it alsp is “seeing cases from people returning from vacations to national COVID-19 ‘hot spots’ like Florida and South Carolina.”

The CDC offers these tips for people who are traveling, and they remain great suggestions for everyone to slow the spread of COVID-19:

• Wash your hands often
• Avoid close contact with others
• Wear a cloth face covering in public
• Cover coughs and sneezes
• Pick up food at drive-throughs, curbside restaurant service, or stores.

Learn more at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-in-the-us.html. We update Lexington’s COVID-19 numbers daily at lfchd.org.