COVID-19 case numbers in Clinton County continued to trend downward during the past seven day reporting period, although the final totals were just slightly higher in the number of new cases compared to the previous week.
According to the Lake Cumberland District Health Department, Clinton County had 50 new cases reported during the previous week, with 42 cases being released as no longer contagious.
Those figures left the current total of active cases in Clinton County as of Tuesday morning at 43, with just three of those active cases being listed as involving patients who were being treated in area hospitals.
While those numbers do represent a slight increase in new cases and total active cases from the week prior, January 26 through February 1, they are still tremendously better than had  been the case for  Clinton County just a few weeks ago.
While Clinton County’s total number of active cases had dipped to just 35 the previous week, the difference of eight new cases in relation to the number of released cases sent the local new case total to just above the 40 mark.
Clinton County’s positive case total was listed as being 131 here on January 6.
Also, for the second consecutive reporting week, the LCDHD listed no new deaths among COVID-19 patients from Clinton County.
To date, Clinton County has experienced the loss of some 26 residents who have died as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic since statistics were first collected in Kentucky back in March, 2020, when the pandemic first reached the state.
To date, Clinton County has experienced 1,324 positive cases of COVID-19 during the nearly year-long pandemic, with 1,255 of those cases being listed as released or no longer contagious.
Based on a population of 10,218, those case numbers represent about 13 percent of the total Clinton County population that at one time or another has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
It is considered also that ,as many of those who have contracted the disease never developed symptoms nor were they ever tested, the percentage of local residents who have had the disease is considerably higher.
According to figures released this week on social media by the  Clinton County school system, a considerable number of the recent new cases appear to involve students and staff within the school system.
As of Monday’s case report from the Clinton County school district, there were 12 active COVID-19 cases among students at Clinton County High School and four cases among staff members there, while 45 students and 10 staff members at that school were undergoing tracing quarantine restrictions.
Although the demand continues to greatly outnumber the supply, vaccinations against the COVID-19 disease are being put into the arms of local citizens as well as across the LCDHD  area and the state as well.
Clinton County continues to be ranked among the highest in the range of case spread rates among the 10 LCDHD counties.
While all 10 of those counties continue to be listed as being in the “red” zone or Critical Spread rate, the numbers saw a reduction in several of the counties, with a few of those counties inching toward the rate of 25 or less that would drop them below that critical spread range.
Clinton County’s rate of spread per 100,000 population as of Tuesday morning was 69.9, the third highest across the 10 county region.
The other nine counties, and the respective seven day average incident rate per 100,000 population were: Russell (86.88), Taylor (74.84), Green (66.59), McCreary (64.67), Pulaski (44.63), Casey (43.32), Cumberland (30.24), Wayne (30.21) and Adair (26.04).
As for the current caseload figures, as of Tuesday morning, in addition to Clinton County’s current 43 positive cases, the current case numbers and the number of hospitalized patients listed in parenthesis among the other nine LCDHD counties: Adair 34 (2), Casey 28 (0), Cumberland 13 (2), Green 50 (2), McCreary 82 (10), Pulaski 177 (21), Russell 111 (5), Taylor 109 (8), Wayne 47 (7).