Daviess County moved back into the “Red Zone” on Tuesday — and will remain there for at least the next couple of days, if not longer — due to a rising number of daily COVID-19 cases. Local officials on Wednesday discussed a number of recommendations that will be in place for the next week as a result.
“Our cases here locally — in Daviess County, regionally and as a state — are dramatically increasing. It’s a very concerning time for us,” said Clay Horton, Green River District Health Department Director, during a Facebook Live session with Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly. “(Tuesday) night, Daviess County crossed back into that area they’re calling ‘Red Zone’ counties.”
Red Zone counties are those with 25 or more average daily cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents. Red Zone counties are updated daily on the incidence rate map on kycovid19.ky.gov.
While 25 cases per 100,000 people might seem low to some, Horton said most health experts have predicted the actual number of infections to be much higher — anywhere from 10-30 times higher than what is actually confirmed.
“Those are just the ones that we have laboratory confirmation on and then reported,” he said. “We know from several other studies that the actual incident in the community is much greater than that.”
Late last month, Gov. Andy Beshear issued new Red Zone reduction recommendations to limit COVID-19 spread. Those inlcude:
- Employers should allow employees to work from home when possible
- Government offices that do not provide critical services need to operate virtually
- Reduce in-person shopping; order online or pickup curbside as much as possible
- Order take-out; avoid dining in restaurants or bars
- Prioritize businesses that follow and enforce the mask mandate and other guidelines
- Reschedule, postpone or cancel public events
- Do not host or attend gatherings of any size
- Avoid non-essential activities outside your home
- Reduce overall activity and contacts, and follow existing guidance, including the 10 Steps to Defeat COVID-19
“You really want to think about how you can limit interactions with people outside of your household,” Horton said. “These are all sacrifices, they’re all an inconvenience. These are all things none of us want to do,” he said. “But it’s really important now. If we all do this collectively, we’ll see those rates go down.”
Horton said crossing into the Red Zone is considered as a critical tipping point. Per Beshear’s guidance, Horton said Thursday is the decision point on committing to recommendations for the following week.
“We will be in the Red Zone Thursday of this week based on the numbers that we’ve already seen and knowing where those averages are,” he said.
Over the last seven days, Daviess County has reported the following number of new cases each day:
- Oct. 29: 16
- Oct. 30: 30
- Oct. 31: 29
- Nov. 1-2: 42
- Nov. 3: 41
- Nov. 4: 27
Horton and Mattingly also discussed issues with contact tracing. They noted that because of the increasing number of cases, there is a different approach in the subsequent investigations that follow a positive case. Mattingly and Horton also acknowledged the delays that have occurred in contacting those who were possibly exposed to a person who tested positive.
“When we have the number of cases that we’re having now, it slows the process down and sometimes it does create delays,” Horton said. “Our goal is to do this as quickly as possible. We try to get them all contacted the same day we get the report.”
Horton continued: “There’s just more than we can keep up with at the present time. That’s not unique to the Green River District Health Department. When you see this level of cases, contact tracing is less effective, just because there’s more to do. There’s more cracks to slip through. And there are people being exposed in multiple ways throughout the community, and that makes it difficult to figure out what’s happening.”
