LOUISVILLE, Ky. — COVID-19 infection rates are showing upward trends across the nation, including right here in Jefferson County.
Based on new cases and hospitalizations Jefferson County remains in the yellow for COVID risk. But last week, health officials reported 3,000 new cases, a jump from the week prior.
Doctors say infection rates of COVID 19 across Jefferson County are back at surge level highs.
"I believe we'll probably be moving into the red zone in the next few weeks, we may already be there," Chief Medical Officer for UofL Health Dr. Jason Smith said.
However, when it comes to the rate of hospitalizations, there may be a silver lining.
"We are now at levels that are on par with, if you remember, the beginning of the last surge," Dr. Ted Smith, director of the University of Louisville Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, said. "We are at those levels today, in Louisville, Kentucky, right, we are at very high levels of infection in the community."
Dr. Ted Smith and his team track COVID infection through wastewater from five treatment plants across Jefferson County.
"We've been doing this for so long, we have very high confidence in the signal that we get from the wastewater corresponding with the amount of cases that we've had in our community," Smith said. "It's tracked virtually perfectly for the entire pandemic."
"I think the reason we probably don't have as much clarity into the numbers is that people have tests at home, and we can go to a drugstore and get a rapid screening test. And that's okay," Dr. Jason Smith said.
Both doctors agree while Louisville's recent Derby and Oaks festivities can't be to blame for the latest surge in cases, they did have some impact on current numbers.
"I wouldn't say it drove us up any higher," Dr. Ted Smith said. "But it certainly didn't help bring levels down either."
One bit of silver lining however, officials say this surge isn't producing the amount of hospitalizations like others have.
Whether that's due to increased immunity or decreased severability, both doctors say only time will tell as this pandemic is only two years old.
"Two weeks into all of the other surges, we would see a pretty significant upswing in the number of patients out or coming in with this disease, and we're not seeing that, and that's a good sign," Dr. Jason Smith said.
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