COVID-19

After more than a week of having no current cases of COVID-19 listed in the daily statistical releases from the Lake Cumberland District Health Department, one new case in Clinton County was added on Monday.

That word came Monday afternoon from the office of Clinton County Judge/Executive Ricky Craig.

Speaking from his courthouse office through a live Facebook page broadcast, Craig broke the news to the county residents and left the few details available to Clinton County Disaster and Emergency Services Director Lucas Abner.

“We have another case of the Coronavirus here in our county,” a solemn Craig said, before asking Abner to take over at the podium.

“We’ve been informed this afternoon of another resident from Clinton County who has tested positive for the Coronavirus,” Abner said. “That patient is actually hospitalized at an out of town hospital.”

Abner was able to release very few particulars about the case, other than to note it is a female patient who had tested positive.

Previously, Clinton County had two positive cases, the first one being announced nearly three weeks ago, and a second announced two week ago. Both of those cases involved home isolation and, eventually, both cases were listed as cleared, or recovered.

“As we’ve stated in previous Facebook posts and press conferences, ‘this virus is everywhere’ and we knew that it was,” Abner said.

Abner also, during Monday’s briefing, urged local citizens to adhere to Governor Beshear’s and Kentucky’s directive to stay at home, despite the fact that other states, including neighboring Tennessee, were beginning to loosen some of the restrictions for their citizens.

“If we’re not doing what we should here, if we go to other states and do things that we shouldn’t, then we’re bringing it back into our county,” Abner said.

Despite the new single case in Clinton County that was added Monday, overall, the case count across the 10 county Lake Cumberland district experienced a dramatic drop in active cases between Sunday and Monday.

Mainly due to a huge release of cases from isolation in Adair County, the overall number of active cases in the district dropped, from a total of 89 on Saturday and Sunday, to 69 on Monday, a reduction of 20 active cases.

In Adair County alone, where the virus has concentrated in a nursing home there, some 19 cases were released from isolation on Monday, making up most of the 20 case reduction across the district.

Of the 69 cases still active on Monday in this district, 15 were listed as hospitalized while 54 were self-isolated cases.

Adair County, with 41 cases on Monday, remains the “hot spot” in the district, followed by Pulaski County with nine active cases, a single case increase from Sunday.

Russell County has four active cases, a two case reduction, while Wayne County increased its case count by one, to four active cases.

Cumberland County and McCreary County both were listed as having three active cases, all shown as self-isolated.

Since the statistics beganto be tabulated in the Lake Cumberland district, there have been a total of 172 cases across the 10 county district, 89 of which have been released, with 14 deaths.