For the second straight week, Clinton County has suffered its worst week, case number wise, in new COVID-19 cases, including what has so far been the highest number of cases in a single day.

With 43 new cases added to the Clinton County total case numbers in a seven day period beginning last Tuesday, as of this Tuesday morning, the total number of active COVID-19 cases was also at its highest ever at 45.

The worst single day total for Clinton County came with the Lake Cumberland District Health Department information brief on Sunday night when we learned that 13 new cases were being added to the case total here.

The high number of new cases that were added to Clinton County’s case numbers also kept the county in the highest range of community spread levels.

Clinton County has been in the “red-range” or “critical community spread” level since October 2 when it first moved into that highest case spread range.

With the most recent report of current cases, as of Tuesday morning, Clinton County’s seven day incidence rate for COVID-19 was 46.1, according to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CFHS).

That number placed Clinton County as the fourth highest county in the state of Kentucky in terms of having the highest rate of seven day incidence, behind only McLean County (51.2), Nicholas County (47.2) and Union County (46.7).

However, likely due to a lag of a few days in the CFHS certifying data submitted from the LCDHD daily, the local health district’s numbers for Clinton County seven day incidence rate was even bleaker.

As of Tuesday morning, the LCDHD report showed Clinton County’s seven day incidence rate even higher at 60.11 cases per 100,000 population.

The formula for determining the level a county is rated in the community spread range is the number of new cases over a seven day period per 100,000 population.

Any level of 25 moves a county into that highest range of community spread and it would be mathematically unlikely that Clinton County will move out of that range anytime soon.

On Tuesday morning, seven of the 10 LCDHD counties were in the highest “red-range” zone.

During the past week that began last Tuesday, October 13, Clinton County had experienced 43 new cases of COVID-19 according to LCDHD, with 33 cases being released during that same time.

In addition to Clinton County’s current 45 COVID-19 cases, other counties in the LCDHD region’s case counts, and the number of hospitalized patients in parentheses, were: Adair 68 (4); Casey 22 (1); Cumberland 13 (1); Green 28 (2); McCreary 20 (0); Pulaski 60 (2); Russell 58 (2); Taylor 65 (1); Wayne 42 (3).

Across the 10 county LCDHD region, there were 421 active cases as of Tuesday morning, including 18 patients who were hospitalized.

Since the pandemic began here in March, the district has experienced 3,698 cases with 78 deaths.

Clinton County has seen 213 cases since the pandemic began, with four deaths, two of which came just last week, according to LCDHD.

In its daily COVID-19 information briefing sent to the Clinton County News Monday evening, LCDHD public information spokesperson Amy Tomlinson noted that the public should curb particular activities in order to try to reduce the number of new cases being experienced.

“From a public health perspective, it is discouraging to see so much social gatherings, along with the limited social distancing and masking. If our present mortality and hospitalization rates hold, and if we continue to experience around 50 cases per day, that will translate to an average of one death and almost four hospitalizations per day,” she noted. “If you are not consistently masking, social distancing, and avoiding crowds, is what you are doing worth contributing to one area death and around four area hospitalizations every day? I cannot help but wonder where our compassion for our fellow man is. In a few months, a vaccine should be becoming available. Surely, we can all make some small sacrifices between now and then.”

Monday’s briefing also noted that the new cases in the district had been mostly tied to schools, businesses, places of worship and family, in that order.