Clinton County’s COVID-19 case numbers realized a significant positive mark this week when ,for the first time in over a month, the total number of active cases in the county dropped below 70.

According to the Lake Cumberland District Health Department’s Public Information Brief released Monday evening of this week, Clinton County’s case count was at 67 following a week of steady reductions that came on nearly a daily basis.

According to the report, as of Tuesday morning, seven of the local cases involved patients who were being treated in local, regional and state hospitals.

Clinton County had 110 active cases on January 7, and just last week, on Friday, January 15, the active case number here was still at a relatively high number, 95.

As the week moved toward Tuesday morning, daily reports in the past seven days saw more cases being released than new case numbers being added, for five of those days.

In the time between last Tuesday’s LCDHD daily report and this Monday’s report, 73 new cases were confirmed while 88 cases were released.

Unfortunately, during that same time span, Clinton County also realized one of its highest weeks of COVID-19 related deaths, with three patients reportedly dying due to the disease.

Included in those deaths, according to LCDHD, were two reported on Thursday of last week, and one death here reported in Monday’s Public Information Brief.

Clinton County continued to remain deep into the highest level of critical spread measure, the critical spread rate of above 25 cases per 100,000 population, with a rate of 102.06, still the highest of the 10 LCDHD counties.

That rate was a vast reduction from the previous rate here of 202.72.

Clinton County has been in the critical, or “red” category now for 109 consecutive days, as of Tuesday morning.

Following Clinton County’s transmission level, other counties within the LCDHD were: Cumberland 77.76; Taylor 65.42; Pulaski 61.34; Wayne 59.72; Green 54.84; Casey 52.16; Russell 45.43; McCreary 43.94; Adair 34.22.

In addition to Clinton County’s current 67 cases, other counties in the LCDHD region’s case counts, and the number of hospitalized patients in parentheses, were: Adair 43 (0); Casey 49 (6); Cumberland 40 (9); Green 32 (2); McCreary 84 (7); Pulaski 248 (32); Russell 54 (6); Taylor 92 (9); Wayne 72 (5).

Local vaccine info briefed

In its Public Information Brief issued late Monday evening, the subject of vaccinations for this area was included.

There is growing frustration and confusion about the COVID-19 vaccine availability. There is a misconception that Lake Cumberland providers have vaccine they are not giving. There is a misconception we are not willing to put in the time needed to give the vaccines. Below we will clarify the present situation and, taking all things into account, beg for your patience and understanding.

Phase 1a (Our Present Situation)

Phase 1a includes long-term care residents and staff, and medical staff.

Not including the vaccine that is flowing through the federal contract with Walgreens and CVC for the long-term care residents and staff, as of today, as far as we know, most of the COVID-19 vaccine that has been allocated to our district has either already been administered or will be gone by the end of the week, having been utilized for Phase 1a recipients, and Phase 1b, first responders. In a few instances, some surplus vaccine has been used for other populations, but on a very limited basis.

For now, the local health departments have not been authorized to order any Phase 1b vaccine. Across the state, efforts are being made at the state-level to move any available vaccine to areas where there are still Phase 1a demand.

The total COVID-19 vaccines received by your local health departments so far (again, these have already either been given, or will be given by the end of the week for Phase 1a recipients only), is as follows:

Adair: 300

Casey: 100

Clinton: 100

Cumberland: 100

Green: 100

McCreary: 100

Pulaski: 800

Russell: 300

Taylor: 100

Wayne: 100

Should some small amount of any of this vaccine remain after we have met Phase 1a demand, we will open that up to the seventy and older population.

Keep in mind that area hospitals also received vaccine for their staff and to help vaccinate the medical community and first responders. Like us, we believe the hospitals have exhausted most of their inventory.

Phase 1b Status

Phase 1b includes first responders (fire, police, etc.), school personnel, and those 70 and older.

First Responders

The local health departments and hospitals have utilized surplus Phase 1a vaccine to target this population. Therefore, first responders have largely been taken care of.

School Staff

We have identified providers to administer the school vaccine in every county. Generally speaking, this will be the provider who already holds the school nurse contract with each school board. We have already provided to the state the lists of every school staff member (public, private, and Christian schools) that want the vaccine. For now, we are waiting on the vaccine to be delivered and have been told to expect it for this population in late January or early February.

Those 70 and Older

The local health departments and other area providers who have been approved to administer the COVID-19 vaccine stand ready to begin this phase. The problem is, the vaccine simply is not yet available.

Let’s break this down. According to census data, there are about 4.67 million people in Kentucky. At 209,369, Lake Cumberland accounts for 4.69% of the state’s total population. The state is presently receiving about 50,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine per week. Combining what doses all providers in Lake Cumberland together might receive, Lake Cumberland’s portion of the weekly state allocation based on its proportion of the state’s population size would be about 2,343 doses per week.

The percent of Kentucky’s population that is 65 plus (the census data breaks at 65 plus, not 70, but this will give us a pretty good idea of what we are up against), is 16.8%. Applied to Lake Cumberland’s population, this would be about 35,174 people needing the vaccine. Now assume that 60% of that population will be willing to take the vaccine. This equals about 21,104 people. Remember, this is a two-dose vaccine, so we need double the amount or about 42,208 doses to vaccinate our elderly population.

Remember, the amount of vaccine Lake Cumberland might receive weekly is only 2,343 doses. Again, 42,208 doses needed, and 2,343 doses potentially received weekly. Let that sink in. At that pace it will take us about 4 months to vaccinate the 70 and over population once we are authorized to order this vaccine.

The bottom-line is, we need a lot of patience. The few drug companies who are manufacturing this vaccine are trying to produce enough for the entire planet. Hopefully, production can speed up, but none of us should expect the vaccination efforts to be over soon.

Phase 1c Status

and Beyond

Taking the above into account, vaccination efforts for these groups will be several months away.

In the past several days, there has also been other important releases of information regarding the scheduling and availability of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Clinton County News is providing that information here:

Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital is now accepting COVID-19 vaccine appointments

Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital is scheduling COVID-19 Vaccine appointments for those persons included in Phase 1A and 1B of the State of Kentucky’s Vaccine Plan starting Thursday, January 14 at 8:00 AM.

Please call 844-675-3390 to schedule an appointment.

Per the State of Kentucky, LCRH will vaccinate those who meet the following criteria in Phase 1A and 1B:

Persons 70 years of age and older

First responders (EMS, Fire, Police)

Healthcare workers (inpatient, outpatient, dental, home-based)

Supplies are limited. This prioritization schedule has been set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the federal government and the State of Kentucky. Walk-in appointments for COVID-19 vaccines will not be accepted at this time. For additional information on eligibility please contact the Lake Cumberland District Health Department at 606.678.4761.

For ongoing updates, visit LakeCumberlandHospital.com/Coronavirus and the LCRH Facebook page at Facebook.com/LakeCumberlandHospital.

Gov. Beshear: Kroger Regional Vaccination Sites Will Open Feb. 1 for Phase 1A, 1B and 1C

Last week, Gov. Andy Beshear, state officials and Kroger leadership announced a new partnership to significantly increase the speed of COVID-19 vaccinations across the commonwealth.

The first Kroger regional, drive-through vaccination sites will open the week of February 1 for Kentuckians in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C.

The Governor said more details would be announced on site locations and how to sign up. On January 28.

“Last year, when we were wondering when anybody who wanted a COVID-19 test would be able to get one, Kroger made that a reality. That testing partnership created the national model for surge testing,” said Gov. Beshear. “These drive-through vaccination sites are fantastic news forall Kentuckians, and we’re grateful to the entire Kroger team for making it possible. Your help in this effort will save countless lives.”

The Governor announced that Transportation Secretary Jim Gray has also been named Director of the Vaccine Distribution Project.

“This is all about Team Kentucky delivering on an ambitious, life-saving project,” said Secretary Gray. “This regional system will grow over time to reach even more Kentuckians. As we speak, we are working to get sites evaluated and secured. We are committed to ensuring equitable distribution of the vaccine and everyone will have their turn.”

“We are proud to partner with the state on efforts to make sure all Kentuckians have access to the COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible,” said Meggen Brown, Chief Nursing Officer and National Clinical Director at Kroger Health. “Kroger Health’s vision is to help people live healthier lives, and that has never been more important.”

Vaccinations have already begun for K-12 school personnel through individual school districts and will continue to ramp up over the next few weeks. The Governor said the state expects to finish administering initial vaccination doses for K-12 educators and support staff the week of February 1.

“The great news is, we expect to finish first dose vaccinations for school staff the week we said we would start,” said Gov. Beshear.

The Governor urged Kentuckians to be patient as vaccine allocations from the federal government are still far too small to cover everyone in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C who wants to be vaccinated.

However, it is critically important that the state gets vaccines into arms quickly. That means in some cases, vaccine providers will need to vaccinate Kentuckians out of the phase sequence in order to meet the state’s goal of administering 90% of vaccines within one week of their arrival at a distribution site.

The Governor and the Kentucky Department for Public Health outlined these phases to help providers distribute vaccines in the most equitable order they can while still vaccinating people as fast as possible.

The planned vaccination phases are:

• Phase 1a: Long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities, health care personnel

• Phase 1b: First responders, Kentuckians age >= 70, K-12 school personnel

• Phase 1c: Kentuckians age >= 60, anyone older than 16 with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highest-risk conditions for COVID-19, all essential workers

• Phase 2: Age >= 40

• Phase 3: Age >= 16

• Phase 4: Children under the age of 16 if the vaccine is approved for this age group (estimated to comprise 18% of Kentucky’s population)

“I know people are understandably anxious and want to get the vaccine as soon as they can, especially those who are high-risk. We want to do our very best to put those people in the front of the line, but we also need to move quickly so vaccines don’t just sit in a freezer, helping no one,” said Gov. Beshear. “The faster we increase our vaccination numbers, the safer we all will be, because we will get closer to herd immunity as a state more quickly. That’s the overarching goal, so we ask Kentuckians to bear with us if they have to wait a little while in order to get an appointment.”