Clinton County’s COVID-19 case count reached a milestone that local officials had been dreading to see, but were expecting nonetheless, when it was announced Monday evening that the 100th case had been reported here.

Case No. 100 was a “51 year-old female who is self- isolated and still symptomatic,” reported Clinton County Judge/Executive Ricky Craig Monday evening in a text to the Clinton County News. “I ask everyone to be in prayer for our county.”

Craig’s daily case report comes after the release of case reports from across the 10 county region by the health officials at Lake Cumberland District Health Department.

Another alarming statistic surrounding the announcement Monday that Clinton County had recorded its 100th case is that almost one-forth of the number of cases ever recorded within the county are still active COVID-19 cases.

As of Tuesday morning, according to the LCDHD, 24 cases are listed as “current cases”, one of the highest percentages of current cases of the 10 counties in the district.

Tuesday morning’s status shows that none of the Clinton County cases are currently hospitalized.

The sudden rise in cases here also moved Clinton County into the red zone, also known as the Critical Zone, with a seven day average incidence rate of more than 25 cases per 100,000 population.

In its worse week ever since the COVID-19 pandemic first began in Kentucky back in March, Clinton County saw 23 new cases being added to its case count since last Tuesday, with just seven cases being released from the total here as recovered, or “not contagious.”

To date, Clinton County has experienced two deaths that have been attributed to the COVID-19 illness.

The sharp increase in cases here also prompted Clinton County School District officials to stop in-person student instruction and once again move to virtual instruction, beginning for all students on Wednesday of this week.

Superintendent Dr. Tim Parson made the announcement via social media late Sunday evening. A separate article with the details about the virtual instruction decision can be found beginning on page 1 of this week’s Clinton County News.

Although Clinton County’s case numbers took a sharp increase upward in the past week, across the 10 county LCDHD region, it was a completely different scenario with the number of current cases showing a steady decline.

After reaching an all-time high on Wednesday, September 2, of 411 cases across the district, the case count had fallen to 280 by Tuesday morning of this week.

As of Tuesday morning, other LCDHD case totals and the number of hospitalized cases in parenthesis, were: Adair 12 (1), Casey 4 (0), Cumberland 2 (0), Green 34 (5), McCreary 15 (1), Pulaski 90 (4), Russell 37 (1), Taylor 43 (1) and Wayne 19 (1).

To date, across the district, there have been a total of 2,444 cases of COVID-19, with 67 related deaths.