LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky health officials are seeing a spike in COVID-19 numbers on the heels of a summer wave of new cases.
A spokesperson for the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness said cases continue to rise in the state and Jefferson County.
There were nearly 3,500 positive COVID-19 cases in Kentucky during the week ending on Aug. 17, according to data from the Kentucky Department for Public Health. By comparison, in the same seven-day period, there were only 27 positive cases of the flu. In Jefferson County, there were 918 new COVID cases and only nine new flu cases that week.
A month earlier, there were just under 300 confirmed cases of COVID in Jefferson County and across Kentucky there were 1,073 COVID cases.
Back in early May, however, there were 282 positive COVID cases in the entire state and 77 cases in Jefferson County.
The CDC regularly tests wastewater across the nation to detect traces of COVID-19 in communities.
Similar to communities across the nation, Kentucky’s wastewater testing data shows a spike of viral activity around the start of August, when many students were preparing for the first day of school.
The dashboard shows Kentucky is one of 14 states where COVID continues to grow.
University of Louisville Health Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Mark Burns said there have been more patients in the hospital with COVID-19 since the end of June.
“We will unfortunately have a winter surge too, as we have the past several years, primarily when the kids are back in school and in addition the holiday season as well,” Dr. Burns said.
Free COVID tests delivered to your home
Starting in September, Americans will be able to get free COVID-19 tests kits delivered to their homes when a federal program reopens. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year.
The announcement also comes as the government is once again urging people to get an updated COVID-19 booster, ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season.
Last week, the FDA approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine designed to combat the recent virus strains and, hopefully, forthcoming winter ones, too.
Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but data shows under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall's COVID-19 shot.
Although deaths and serious infections have dropped dramatically since COVID-19 started its U.S. spread in 2020, hospitalizations have started to slightly creep up in recent weeks. In total, more than 1 million Americans have died from the virus.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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