Case numbers still steady, vaccinations still available

Clinton County’s COVID-19 case numbers continued to remain low during the past seven days, with one more case being added than the number of cases that were released, although a unique situation that occurred on Friday caused the overall case numbers to jump dramatically.

According to the Public Information Brief that was issued by the Lake Cumberland District Health Department, there were six active cases of COVID-19 in Clinton County as of Tuesday morning, an increase of one case from the report a week earlier.

Still, that total number of cases is a drastic reduction that has occurred since just a few weeks back, when the cases were surging, not only Clinton County, but across the 10 county LCDHD district and the entire state and nation.

Due to the state and the district attempting to reconcile their case and death numbers, there were a number of new cases added to the Clinton County total last Friday, including an additional death.

However, the audit of cases also meant that those same cases were immediately moved to the released category as well, leaving the total number of active cases unchanged when all was said and done.

The unique action was described by the LCDHD officials within that Friday Public Information Briefing.

“One of the deaths we announce today is a 64-year-old individual from Clinton who had been released from public health observation ,but later succumbed to lasting complications from the illness. This death occurred in January and was identified as part of the State Department for Public Health’s efforts to audit all death-related COVID-19 data.”

“We had several cases this week that were “opened and closed” on the same day. Some of these, 24, were old cases that were added to our numbers as we reconciled our data.”

The report included 14 cases out of those 24 mentioned that were added to, then removed from, the Clinton County active case totals.

With the exception of that aforementioned death that occurred in January and just now added to the Clinton County totals, there were no new additional deaths attributed to COVID-19 among Clinton County patients during the past week.

Another positive aspect when looking at the Clinton County case totals is that during the past week, two patients who were listed as being hospitalized last week have now been removed from that category and, as of Tuesday morning, there were no local COVID-19 patients listed as being treated in a hospital.

In Clinton County, the COVID-19 vaccine continues to be readily available as The Med Center at Albany continues to offer vaccination appointments to the public at their remote location in the Welcome Center, just north of Albany.

The vaccinations being offered here have moved into the 1c Phase, now including Kentucky residents who are 40 and older.

Those persons eligible as part of Phases 1a, 1b and 1c are asked to schedule a vaccine appointment by texting SHOT to 606-387-3646 or by emailing AlbanyVaccine@mchealth.net, or by calling 606-387-3646 and leaving a message.

Med Center Health will bill insurance companies for administration costs and individuals will not incur any costs.

The vaccine will be provided regardless of whether or not a person has insurance.

Clinton County’s steadily decreasing case numbers in recent weeks had moved the county out of the highest level of seven day case transmissions and into the second lowest “yellow” Community Spread range.

However, those 14 cases that were added through the audit and reconciliation move last week “skewed” the case numbers and forced the county back into the highest “red” transmission range of Critical Spread.

The LCDHD also acknowledged that the change of spread rates for some counties had been skewed due to the audit of case numbers that had been performed.

Although several of the LCDHD counties saw transmission levels changed last week, only Clinton and McCreary counties were in the Critical Spread level as of Tuesday morning.

Across the 10 county district, Clinton County’s six active cases were on the low end of the board, with the remaining nine county case totals and the number of hospitalized patients in parenthesis being: Adair 3 (0), Casey 6 (2), Cumberland 2 (0), Green 6 (1), McCreary 29 (4), Pulaski 45 (8), Russell 10 (0), Taylor 9 (1), Wayne 28 (5).

To date, Clinton County has had 1,438 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic first reached Kentucky just over a year ago.

In considering the number of cases per capita, using the “per 100,000 population” formula the state utilizes to put each county on an even comparison level, Clinton County has experienced the highest number of cases in the 10 county LCDHD district.

(See related article beginning this week on page 1).