Last week’s winter storm and the increasing number of positive COVID-19 test results daily have not only sent health care workers and facilities into a tailspin across Kentucky, but just this week, impacted the way that Lake Cumberland District Health Department will be outputting information, at least temporarily.

Sam Price, the LCDHD Public Affairs Officer, noted in Monday’s public information brief, that the surge of COVID cases had forced the changes.

“Due to the surge of COVID cases, as well as the recent weather-related closures and holidays, the health department is behind on getting cases investigated and contacted,” Price said in Monday’s press release. “As such, the nightly numbers and reports will be skewed until we can catch up.”

Going forward, Price noted that the daily reports would not contain as much information as has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Monday’s report only gave daily new case increase numbers for each county without reporting how many cases had been released for each county on that same day.

That being the case, there is no way for the NEWS to report to its readers, at the current time, with the current style of reports from LCDHD, how many current/active cases of COVID-19 Clinton County is experiencing at any given time, or at the end of a reporting week.

At the last full report, Thursday, January 6, Clinton County had 10 active cases within its population.

Last week’s winter snow storm also kept the LCDHD office closed, resulting in no report on Friday, as well as the customary lack of reports issued on Saturday and Sunday.

Monday’s abbreviated report did note that two additional new cases of COVID-19 had been attributed to the Clinton County numbers, but without knowing how many cases had been released during that same period, determining exactly how many current cases exist isn’t possible..

Clinton County’s two new cases reported Monday, tied for the lowest number of new cases reported from the 10 LCDHD counties, with Green County also showing two new cases among it’s population.

The trend of increasing new cases, which are likely the newest Omicron variant, was evident with Monday’s report, with Pulaski County leading the new case tally with 77, followed by Taylor County with 63.

Neighboring Cumberland County also showed a significant rise in new case numbers on Monday, with 39.

In all, there were 338 new cases reported in the 10 county LCDHD, in Monday’s report.

As for vaccinations, Clinton County continues to make progress on that front, although at a slower rate than health officials would like to see.

In the past week, 24 Clinton County residents became vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease, according to the Kentucky Cabinet for Public Health.

As of Tuesday morning, 4,592 Clinton County residents have been vaccinated, at least with an initial dose.

That number translates to 44.94 percent of Clinton County’s total population.

Vaccination numbers also show that 72.79 percent of the population here 65 years old or older have been vaccinated (1,469), and 56 percent (4,430) of the population 18 years old and older have been vaccinated.

Vaccination numbers are not affected by patients who have received a second dose nor a booster dose of a vaccine.

Vaccinations against the virus are now readily available at several locations in Albany, including local pharmacies, and those seeking a vaccine are urged to call your favorite pharmacy for information.

Vaccines are also now available again at the Clinton County Health Department.

Vaccination appointments through the Clinton County Health Department, or more information about the vaccines being offered and the vaccination dates and times, may be obtained by calling 606-387-5711.

The local health department is also now offering booster vaccines to those who are eligible.