After two consecutive weeks of seeing the number of COVID-19 cases appear to be dropping off slightly, Clinton County experienced one of the worst weeks yet since the pandemic reached Kentucky back in March of this year.

According to the Lake Cumberland District Health Department, Clinton County saw 88 new cases added to its count during the past seven day period, a dramatic increase from the 39 new cases that had been reported during the previous week.

The jump in new cases last week in Clinton County followed a district and state trend of increasing numbers of new cases as the pandemic continues to flex its hold on our community, state, nation and world.

The 88 new cases added over the past seven days were 18 more than the 70 that were listed as released and no longer contagious, according to the LCDHD.

Clinton County had seen a reduction in new cases for a two week span prior, with the 39 aforementioned new cases in the week ending Novemer 30, preceded by a week with 57 new cases.

Last week’s dramatic rise in cases included a Daily Information Report on Wednesday when 32 new cases were added to the count by the LCDHD, with only seven cases being released that same day.

Those 32 new cases were the highest single day of new cases for Clinton County since November 13 when 29 new cases were added to the local tally.

No new deaths in Clinton County have been reported during the past seven days, as of Tuesday morning of this week, with 15 Clinton County residents having died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Clinton County also continues to have one of the highest seven day incident rates within the 10 county LCDHD district.

As of Tuesday morning, Clinton County’s seven day incident rate was listed as being 123.03 cases per 100,000 population, making it the third highest rate within the district.

That compares with a rating of 54.53 cases per 100,000 population last week, according to figures released by the LCDHD.

Any rating above 25 cases per 100,000 for the seven day average incidence rate places a county into the critical spread level.

Clinton County has remained in that highest critical spread category for 66 consecutive days.

Other seven day incident rates within the LCDHD district were: McCreary, 130.16; Russell 114.78; Taylor 107.55; Wayne 89.93; Pulaski 86.4; Green 84.87; Adair 78.86; Casey 63.65; Cumberland 38.88.

Currently there are 1,190 active cases across the 10 county district, with 75 patients being hospitalized.

Clinton County has seen 578 cases of COVID-19 since March.

In addition to Clinton County’s current COVID-19 cases, other counties in the LCDHD region’s case counts, and the number of hospitalized patients in parentheses: Adair 120 (8), Casey 52 (7), Cumberland 20 (5), Green 40 (1), McCreary 137 (11), Pulaski 349 (24), Russell 115 (5), Taylor 202 (5), Wayne 95 (2).