By JOE ASHER

joe.asher@middlesboronews.com

 

The Bell County Health Department has released its daily update concerning COVID-19 cases around the county.

According to the Bell County Health Department, as of Thursday Bell County has a total of 449 cases of COVID-19.

Four new cases were reported.  Currently, eight people are hospitalized, with ages ranging from 49 to 85 years old for males and females ranging from 76 to 93 years of age.

Bell County currently has 12 active individual cases and 36 active long term care cases.  Bell County has seen 14 deaths related to COVID-19.

Gov. Andy Beshear said there were at least 58,764 coronavirus cases in Kentucky, 776 of which were newly reported Wednesday. Ninety-one of the newly reported cases were from children ages 18 and younger, of which 13 were children ages 5 and under. The youngest was only 3 months old.

“We continue to see this trend, where more and more kids are testing positive. They are becoming a bigger percentage of our positivity rate for a couple of reasons,” the Governor said. “One, thankfully, kids are being tested more often, and two, they are out doing more. But remember as we are making these decisions, our belief is that kids can transmit this virus as easily as anybody else.”

Unfortunately, Gov. Beshear reported eight new deaths Wednesday, raising the total to 1,082 Kentuckians lost to the virus.

“Remember, COVID-19 doesn’t care about your county line or whether you are rural or urban,” the governor said.

As of Wednesday, there have been at least 1,090,160 coronavirus tests performed in Kentucky. The positivity rate was 3.89%, and at least 11,043 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.

The Bell County Health Department recommends the following steps to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

• Wash hands with soap and water before eating and after blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing or using the restroom;
• Avoid contact with people who are sick;
• Avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes;
• Wear a mask when in public and when social distancing is difficult.