Fayette has lowest new weekday COVID case number since early November

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Lexington reported 151 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, the lowest weekday number since early November.

The new cases raised the total number of cases since March to 21,156, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department’s morning report Thursday. The county has had fewer than 200 cases a day for almost a week.

The county recorded no new deaths, leaving the total at 143 lost to coronavirus-related causes.

Despite the vaccine rollout, health officials say the majority of people won’t be able to get one for awhile.

“We are months away from this being widely available to the general public,” said Kevin Hall, communications officer at Lexington-Fayette County Health Department. “It’s going to be into the spring most likely, at the earliest, until you’re going to be able to get that shot. That’s why it’s so important to keep doing what you’re doing, following the guidelines, until we get there.”

According to the daily morning report Wednesday from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, the county confirmed 170 new cases Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases since March to 21,005.

While the numbers still are high, they suggest the surge in the county may be stabilizing, even if not yet fully declining.

“The last few days, we’ve been asked about the lower numbers. Any days the positive cases are down from the 300-400 from late November and early December is a good thing, but ‘down’ is relative – these are still much higher counts than in the summer and even two or three times what they were in October. Our ‘low days’ are higher than most of our high days in the fall, so we can’t put our guard down,” Health Department Communications Director Kevin Hall said.

“Plus, there are still more than 100 Lexington residents in hospitals from this. It’s too early for anyone to stop following the guidelines to keep this from spreading. The vaccine arrival is fantastic news, but until it’s widely available for the general public in 2021, we have to continue fighting this virus together,” Hall added.

According to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department’s daily report, the county has confirmed 3,753 new cases and 10 deaths through the first 16 days of December.

That’s more than all of August, September or October.

To help slow the spread of COVID-19, follow these guidelines:
• Wear a cloth face-covering in public
• Avoid close contact with others
• Wash your hands often
• Stay home if you are sick.

Lexington’s COVID-19 numbers, including charts with demographics, hospitalizations and more, are updated Monday-Saturday at lfchd.org.

• 110, March
• 143, April
• 507, May
• 793, June
• 1,702 July
• 2,538, August
• 2,804, September
• 2,736, October
• 6,070, November

The county reached the following thousand-case marks on these dates:

• 21,000: Dec. 15
• 20,000: Dec. 10

• 19,000: Dec. 6
• 18,000: Dec. 2
• 17,000: Nov. 28
• 16,000: Nov. 24
• 15,000: Nov. 20
• 14,000: Nov. 16
• 13,000: Nov. 11
• 12,000: Nov. 5
• 11,000: Oct. 29
• 10,000: Oct. 20
• 9,000: Oct. 6
• 8,000: Sept. 22
• 7,000: Sept. 11
• 6,000: Sept. 2
• 5,000: Aug. 23
• 4,000: Aug. 10
• 3,000: July 28
• 2,000: July 12
• 1,000: June 10
• 1: March 8