School re-opening and businesses are adversely affected

Voice Staff Report
editor@tmcvoice.com

McCreary County has moved into the Red/Critical transmission level of community spread as 15 new cases were reported on Monday and Tuesday, bringing the County’s total number of active cases to 44 with two hospitalized. This level of transmission affects not only businesses but the planned re-opening of schools.
McCreary County’s active Coronavirus cases continue to grow as more positive cases are reported and businesses in the county are becoming affected by quarantines limiting the number of employees available to work their normal shift. People who have been in direct contact with someone testing positive are required to self-quarantine for 14 days, even if that person tests negative. The people in quarantine may not have Covid-19 but are told to avoid contact with other people for the 14 day period.
New guidelines were issued Tuesday from the State Department of Health that will affect the re-opening of schools. The term “contact” in a school room setting was clarified and stated, “That if people in a school room where a positive Covid-19 case was present were properly distanced (6 feet) and consistently wearing face-coverings, would not be considered “contacts.” However, if not properly distanced and/or not consistently wearing face-coverings, would be considered “contacts” and would have to quarantine.” To summarize, schools should ensure that students are appropriately distanced and consistently wearing a face-covering. Schools should be in the Orange, Yellow or Green level of spread for seven days to open for in-person classes.
As of Tuesday evening McCreary County was reporting 44 active cases with two people hospitalized. That brings the County’s cumulative total number of cases since the pandemic started to 185. After reporting 8 new cases on Monday and 9 new cases on Tuesday, McCreary County has moved into the Red/Critical transmission level of community spread. Five of the ten counties in the Lake Cumberland District are in the Orange/Accelerated Spread level, only Casey, Adair, Taylor and Cumberland are in the Yellow/Community Spread transmission level and none of the ten counties are in the Green/ On Track transmission level.

The majority of new cases are linked to businesses, schools, family, places of worship and are travel related. Businesses have been linked to 19.6% of the new cases, schools have been linked to 14.7% of new cases, family has been linked to 12.7 %, places of worship have been linked to 12.7% and travel related has been linked to 11.8 % of new cases. These five areas represent 71.5% of new case spread.
The ten county Lake Cumberland District is reporting 231 active cases with 14 hospitalized. The cumulative total number of cases for the district is 2,842 and 69 deaths. There have been 67,936 confirmed cases across all 120 Kentucky counties and 1,170 deaths.
Scott County Tennessee is reporting 24 active cases. The cumulative total cases reported in Scott County, TN is 218 with 2 deaths.

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