Local COVID numbers remain fairly constant

For the month of July, McCracken County has averaged 173.8 cases per week from June 30 to July 27. For the month of June, the county averaged 195 cases per week from May 26 to June 29.

McCracken County has been at the highest incidence rate for the last five weeks, according to color-coded maps issued by the Kentucky Department for Public Health.

The color-coded incidence rate map issued weekly by the Kentucky Department for Public Health shows 108 of the state’s 120 counties at the highest incidence rate. That is the most counties at the level since Feb. 17, when 108 counties were at that level.

An incidence rate is the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days.

On the color-coded map, counties at the highest incidence rate — more than 25 cases per 100,000 people — are colored red, while those at the next-highest level — 10 to 25 cases — are colored orange. Those at the third-highest rate — 1 to 10 cases — are colored yellow, while those at the lowest rate — less than 1 case — are colored green.

The 12 counties not at the highest level are all at the next-highest level, colored orange.

McCracken County’s incidence rate this week is 28.6, placing it at the red level for the fifth straight week. Over the previous four weeks, the county’s incidence rate has been 27.5 (July 18), 32.5 (July 11), 29.7 (July 5) and 31.2 (June 27).

Other counties at the red level in western Kentucky include Ballard (29.0), Caldwell (65.0), Calloway (30.8), Carlisle (39.0), Fulton (38.3), Graves (28.8), Livingston (40.4) and Marshall (27.6). Area counties at the orange level include Crittenden (22.7), Hickman (22.8) and Lyon (22.6).

Another tool used by the Kentucky Department for Public Health to measure the level of spread of COVID-19 is the community level map, which shows counties at a high level in red, at a medium level in yellow and in a low level in green.

All of the aforementioned counties except for Calloway are at the high level, shown in red. Calloway County is at the medium level in yellow.

On this week’s community level map, 80 Kentucky counties — two-thirds or 66.7% — are at the high level, 33 are at the medium level and seven are at the low level.

Purchase District Health Department Director Kent Koster said that although the levels are high and the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are increasing, the numbers have remained stable.

“Our area was one of the first areas (in Kentucky) to go red,” he said. “Since we’ve gone red, it’s been pretty stable. I mean, May 12-18, we had 163 cases, and July 21-27, we had 162 cases in McCracken County.

“It’s fluctuated right around the 200 mark, give or take 30 to 50. It’s been fairly stable here. We’ve not seen any spikes. We’ve not seen any going up drastically and we haven’t seen any go down drastically. It’s kind of just hanging.”