For the third consecutive week, Clinton County saw an extremely high number of new COVID-19 cases added to its count and again, one additional death of a resident.

In a near duplication of the previous week, there were once again 94 new cases attributed to Clinton County residents during the past week, according to data collected by the Lake Cumberland District Health Department.

There were two days during the past week, when new case numbers were in the single digits, last Tuesday when eight new cases were added, and again on Sunday when six new cases were added.

During the remaining five days this past week there were new cases that were in the double digits, including the worst day in the past seven, last Wednesday, when 21 new cases were added to the local number tally.

By comparison, there were also some 87 cases removed from the active case count and placed into the “released” or non-contagious case count, making for an increase of seven positive or active cases overall during the past seven days.

As of Tuesday morning, the LCDHD reported that Clinton County had 93 current active cases, 12 of which were listed as being hospitalized.

In addition, Clinton County had the second highest seven day incident rate per 100,000 people, not only in the 10 county LCDHD district, but across the entire state of Kentucky, as well.

Clinton County’s Seven Day Incident Rate, as per the LCDHD report, was 131.42.

Wayne County, which is also within the LCDHD area, led the region in the seven day incidence rate as of Tuesday morning, with a rate of 145.44 cases.

Case numbers in that category differ somewhat from the totals released daily by the state Department of Public Health and the totals released by LCDHD, a situation that is attributed by officials to the lag by the Kentucky Department of Public Health in compiling reports from health departments across the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

In the state tally, Clinton County narrowly trailed McCreary in the high count totals of that case category.

According to the Kentucky Department of Public Health, McCreary County led the state in the incident rate with a case count of 240.4, while Clinton County trailed closely with a case count of 205.5, per 100,000 population.

Recommendations from state government place several suggested restrictions on counties that are in that afore mentioned Critical Spread Positivity Incidence Rate area, also referred to as the “Red Zone”.

As of Tuesday morning, according to the Kentucky Department of Public Health, only three of Kentucky’s 120 counties were not currently listed as being in the Critical Spread category.

Clinton County has remained in the Critical Spread, or Red Level, for 79 straight days.

On Friday of last week, the LCDHD reported Clinton County’s 17th death as a result of the COVID-19 virus.

According to the Daily Public Information Brief that day, the local death included a “54 year-old male from Clinton County who had been released from public health observations as no longer contagious, but later succumbed to lasting complications from the illness.”

He was one of eight deaths the LCDHD reported from across the region last Friday.

Seven day transmission rates across the 10 county LCDHD region also included McCreary 112.75; Pulaski 99.81; Green 63.98; Cumberland 58.32; Taylor 53.22; Russell 52.61; Casey 36.25; Adair 35.71.

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, were: Adair 42 (7); Casey 30 (4); Cumberland 24 (2); Green 47 (7); McCreary 122 (13); Pulaski 326 (30); Russell 57 (3); Taylor 99 (6); Wayne 174 (9).