Health officials said the community should take note after a big jump in the number of COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday. The 364 cases reported in Daviess County over the last week was nearly double the week prior, and is 17 times as many as were reported April 5.
The Green River District Health Department has continued to release the number of new COVID-19 infections each week. The number in Daviess County dropped as low as 7 for the report on April 12 (meaning only 7 cases were reported over the previous 7 days).
The numbers slowly began to climb, reaching triple digits when 130 were reported on June 14. That rose to 182 on June 21 and 188 on June 28 before the big jump reported Tuesday.
“Going back probably to April, we saw just a very slow, kind of steady increase in terms of the number of reported cases that we’ve been investigating here at the Health Department,” GRDHD Director Clay Horton said. “But that that slow and steady increase has accelerated, especially in the last couple of weeks. It was very, very noticeable.”
Horton said health officials “felt like that even though we had gotten some relief through the spring and were in a much better place with COVID-19,” that it wasn’t completely over and there would be times of increased community spread such as now.
“I think people should take notice,” he said. “Alarm would be too strong of a word, but certainly be aware that we’ve got a lot of spread happening right now.”
Owensboro Health Regional Hospital officials shared a similar message.
“We are reporting 12 COVID patients at OHRH today. That number is not alarming, but it does represent an uptick that the community should take note of,” said Brian Hamby, Marketing Director. “We would advise people to take common sense precautions to keep themselves and the community safe this summer. Also be aware that masks are again required for visiting our hospital — a precaution that we are taking to help slow the spread of the virus.”
On June 30, Hamby said that OHRH had seen double-digit cases in the hospitals for “a few weeks now” along with an increase in team members calling in with COVID-19. As a result, OH is again requiring masks to be worn in all facilities.
Horton said the first thing he recommends is that people be up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, especially those who are most at risk.
“Beyond that, if you’re sick, if you’re having symptoms, if you know you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19, make sure that you get tested,” he said. “Then there’s still a place for using a well-fitting mask, especially for those that are high-risk, or really for anyone in an indoor public area. … It’s time to start considering wearing a mask in public settings again.”
Horton said they still test to determine which variants are more dominant and what’s circulating in the community. He said they are currently seeing several sub-variants of Omicron, and that’s reflected across the region and country as a whole.
Horton said the symptoms of COVID-19 remain similar with the sub-variants, adding that over the last few months hospitalizations have remained relatively low compared to the early phases of the pandemic.
However, he noted there can still be risk, especially to those that aren’t vaccinated.
“There’s good data at this point that shows that vaccination does protect not only against infection, but it does an especially good job in protecting against severe outcomes and mortality from COVID-19,” he said. “That goes back to what I was saying earlier about the most important thing is staying up to date on your vaccinations.
Horton said both the availability of testing and people’s eagerness to get tested has changed over the last couple of years.
He said early on, testing could only be done by health care providers and labs, which in turn reported that information to the Department of Public Health. Now, at-home tests are readily available but those results aren’t necessarily communicated to any health agency. Horton said many people also don’t feel the need to get tested because they have “gotten so accustomed to COVID-19.
“So what we’ve seen in terms of reported cases is just a portion of what’s really out there in the community,” he said. “We watch those trends, and to see those coming up so quickly, it does indicate that there’s more spread right now.”
County-level data for COVID-19 can be found at kycovid19.ky.gov and cdc.gov. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides information to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest COVID-19 data. COVID-19 Community Levels for every county can be found at cdc.gov. Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. The COVID-19 Community Level is currently classified as medium for Daviess County.
