LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky officials reported 58 deaths related to COVID-19 on Thursday, the second straight day reported fatalities exceeded 50.
But Gov. Andy Beshear said the state continues to see declining daily case rates, and is close to recording a fourth straight week of lower case numbers.
Beshear said the state is also seeing fewer deaths in long-term-care facilities. On Thursday, 18 of the 58 reported deaths, or about 31%, were in those facilities.
“If there is any positive in these death numbers it’s that a smaller and smaller percent of them are residents in long-term care,” Beshear said Thursday during a COVID-19 briefing.
The state has put a priority on vaccinating residents in those facilities, which at one point were accounting for about two-thirds of Kentucky’s COVID-related deaths, the governor said.
Beshear announced two new regional vaccination centers in Covington and Bowling Green that opened on Thursday. He said the state continues to distribute the vaccine doses it gets from the federal government as quickly as they come in.
“We have more capacity than we have supply,” he said. “The reason that so many out there can’t get an appointment is just a matter of supply.”
Kentucky recorded 2,500 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday. The state’s positivity rate, a measure of new positive tests for the virus, remained below 9% for the seventh straight day.
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