LOUISVILLE, Ky. — COVID-19 cases are going up on both sides of the Ohio River, and a new variant is spreading.
In Indiana, the 7-day average of new daily cases has tripled this month, from around 200 to about 600. The positivity rate is also back over 5%.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Kentucky has reported more than a thousand new cases on average, the highest we've seen since mid-March.
Health officials in Louisville said the delta variant is the dominant strain, and Clark County, Indiana is getting ready for the inevitable after reporting its first confirmed delta case Friday.
"We have now just got confirmation that Clark County has a positive delta from a random sampling done within the county," Clark County Health Department administrator Doug Bentfield said.
Bentfield said though the variant was just confirmed, it’s likely been around much longer. The concern is that the variant is spreading quickly, especially among young people.
"That's why transmissibility is higher as well, it's replicating faster so when you cough or sneeze there's more virus that is expelled into the air,” Bentfield said.
As variants develop, learning how to spread, Dr. Ruth Carrico with the University of Louisville says vaccines are taking the hit.
"While they are still very effective, that effectiveness has been reduced,” she said. “Instead of in the 90s it's in the 80s.”
In Kentucky, breakthrough cases made up about 3.4% of COVID cases from March to June. Indiana reports 3198 breakthroughs out of about 155,000 cases since January.
Bentfield says experts always knew those would come.
"The vaccine is not 100%, it was not 100% when it came out, so we need to understand there will be cases that come through,” he said.
For Dr. Carrico, it's a game of numbers. She says the vaccine minimizes the opportunity for people, both vaccinated and not, to get sick and spread the virus further.
"It is literally the only common factor when you start looking at all the ways to get ahead of this disease,” Carrico said.
For breakthrough cases, odds of hospitalization or serious illness go down too.
"The vaccine still has a very high efficacy and its very important you get vaccinated because it reduces your chances of hospitalization and possibly death," Bentfield said.
The desperate plea from health officials — don't let delta be the downfall of progress made so far.
Governor Beshear this week also urged unvaccinated Kentuckians to get their shots as soon as possible, saying it's the most effective way to protect yourself and others.
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