Clinton County’s COVID-19 case rate numbers continued to be the worst within the 10 county Lake Cumberland District Health Department, and the third worst within the state of Kentucky, according to case reports as of Tuesday morning of this week.

In addition, looking at actual case numbers reported new during the last seven days, it was perhaps the worst week yet for Clinton County. If not, then one of the worst.

Clinton County saw 117 new positive cases of COVID-19, according to Daily Information Brief reports from the LCDHD, compared to 83 new positive cases the week before.

Also, there were more new cases reported by authorities than there were cases released as recovered by the agency, with 100 cases being released during the past week.

That left Clinton County’s total active number of cases at 101 as of Tuesday morning, compared to 83 active cases a week ago.

Of the 101 current active cases in Clinton County, there were 11 patients who were being treated in local and area hospitals.

Last week’s case reports included just five days for the second consecutive week, with labs and the LCDHD being closed for the New Year’s holiday on both Thursday and Friday of last week.

Last week’s worst day, in regards to high case numbers being reported, came on Wednesday, December 30, when 54 new cases were added to the Clinton County numbers, with just 12 cases being released as recovered or no longer contagious.

Clinton County also saw its 20th reported death due to complications related to the COVID-19 virus.

As for the seven day incident rate that is used to compare case numbers within counties across Kentucky in regards to each county’s population numbers, Clinton County once again was one of the highest in the state, and was the highest within the 10 county LCDHD district.

The rate of cases in that category according to the LCDHD tabulations, had Clinton County with 163.58 cases per 100,000 population, an increase from the previous week when that number was 117.44.

Following Clinton County within the LCDHD was Wayne 115.93, Cumberland 86.4, Taylor 63.75, McCreary 63.01, Russell 58.98, Pulaski 58.92, Green 54.84, Adair 53.57 and Casey 25.64.

As of Tuesday morning, all 10 counties in the district were in the Critical Spread category that includes counties with seven day incident rates above 25 per 100,000.

In Kentucky, Clinton County trailed only Boyle and Lawrence counties in the seven day incidence rate category, with 108 of Kentucky’s 120 counties remaining in the Critical Spread, or red category.

Clinton County has remained in that red category for 95 consecutive days.

In addition to Clinton County’s 101 current COVID-19 cases, other counties in the LCDHD region’s case counts, and the number of hospitalized patients in parentheses were: Adair 69 (5); Casey 18 (3); Cumberland 36 (3); Green 31 (1); McCreary 71 (14); Pulaski 188 (21); Russell 50 (2); Taylor 107 (7); Wayne 142 (14).

Clinton County has had 966 cases of COVID-19 reported since the pandemic first arrived in Kentucky in March, 2020, with 20 related deaths.

Across the LCDHD district, there have been 14,168 total cases, with 271 related deaths.

Although the process of beginning to administer COVID-19 vacinnaions have begun in Kentucky, the process is going slower than officials had first predicted would be the case.

In consideration of that situation, the LCDHD, in its most recent Public Information Brief, urged the public to continue to do its part to combat the spread of the disease by wearing face coverings, avoiding crowds (especially in confined spaces), social distancing when around others, increasing our hand hygiene, increasing our general sanitation, and by avoiding the touching of our faces.