LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville health officials want the city to know the pandemic is not over. In fact, COVID-19 cases are on the rise again.
"Our cases have doubled in the last week, with the delta variant becoming our dominant strain in Louisville," said Dr. Sarah Moyer, Louisville’s Chief Health Strategist. "We remain in the yellow status, but we expect to be back in the orange by the end of the week."
Over the previous two weeks, Louisville has confirmed 414 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths.
As of July 20, there were 43 people hospitalized, 13 people in ICU and seven people on ventilators. All those hospitalized were unvaccinated.
While some cases have been breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals, most of the cases are being seen in unvaccinated people.
According to Metro Department of Public Health, 55% of Louisville residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 47.2% have gotten their second dose.
“With less than half the city’s population fully vaccinated, Louisville remains in a pandemic with a virus that is twice as contagious as it was last summer," Moyer said.
Moyer also warned that the number of COVID-19 case clusters could grow enough to impact schools by the time students are ready to return. Currently, children under 12 years old are not eligible to get the vaccine.
For more information on how you can get the vaccine in Louisville, visit louisville.gov/covid19, vaccines.gov, or call the LOU Health Helpline at 502-912-8598.
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