Clinton County’s COVID-19 case count continued to rise during the past week, with a total of 16 new cases added to the local count, with less than half that many, seven cases, being released.

The ages for the new cases were among the broadest for local cases since the pandemic began in March, including the announcement last Tuesday by the Lake Cumberland District Health Department that a two-month old female was among the four new cases announced on that day.

The infant was said to be symptomatic and self-isolated.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, in Clinton County, the new cases also included a 72 year-old female who was self-isolated and asymptomatic, or not showing symptoms, when first reported.

Those 20 cases that were active as of Tuesday morning, included none that were listed as hospitalized.

It was also learned last week that a member of the Clinton County High School football coaching staff, who is not a school on site staff member, had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, forcing school officials to place the entire coaching staff, as well as some 37 players on the team, in quarantine.

That action meant that games for at least the next two weeks would be postponed and rescheduled.

A separate article outlining the details surrounding the football team, and the rescheduling efforts for the postponed games, can be found this week beginning on page 1.

With the recent number of cases in Clinton County, it was noted that the county had moved into the “accelerated spread” level, and was near being moved into the “red” zone, or “critical” level of spread.

As of Tuesday morning, only one county in the region, McCreary County, was listed as being in the red category of case spread numbers.

McCreary County’s case numbers had more than doubled in the past week, with 35 cases as of Tuesday morning, compared with 14 a week ago.

Across the 10 county LCDHD region, the total number of cases were up slightly this week compared to last week, 222 to 219.

Of this week’s 222 cases, 13 were listed as being hospitalized, also an increase of three cases compared to last Tuesday morning’s case numbers.

Still, the number of cases across the 10 county LCDHD region, currently, at 222, is drastically lower than the all-time high number of 411 cases reported earlier this month on September 2, 2020.

In addition to Clinton County’s current 20 COVID-19 cases, other counties in the LCDHD region’s case counts, and the number of hospitalized patients in parentheses, are: Adair 18 (1); Casey 2 (0); Cumberland 5 (0); Green 17 (1); McCreary 35 (1); Pulaski 57 (3); Russell 11 (3); Taylor 26 (2); and Wayne 31 (2).

To date, there have been 2,807 total cases across the LCDHD region, 2,516 of which are listed as recovered.

Since the pandemic reached Kentucky back in March, there have been 69 deaths in the 10 county region, two of which were Clinton County residents.