By Lee Bratcher/OC Monitor
HARTFORD, Ky. — Ohio County Judge-Executive David Johnston provided Ohio County with another COVID-19 update from his office on the Ohio County Fiscal Court’s Facebook page. During the update, Johnston had information on the arrival of the vaccine in Ohio County and who would receive it intially.
Johnston, who is normally a very optimistic person, didn’t paint a rosy picture of the COVID-19 situation in Ohio County, including the fact that Ohio County had a higher percentage of death due to COVID-19 related complications than Daviess County.
“We, folks, are still in a lot of danger and in big trouble in our county with COVID-19,” Johnston said. “We have 30 (total COVID-19 related) deaths. We had three new deaths reported today, so that means we’re up to 30 (total deaths). This makes our (death) percentage very high. We’re at 2 percent and Daviess County is only at 1.4 percent. So our death rate is higher than the average. Our number of cases is higher than the average.”
According to Johnston, after Thanksgiving, the county saw a “serious uptick” of COVID-19 cases of which the county’s medical facilities and providers all noticed. Johnston said the rise in cases was due to too many gatherings during Thanksgiving.
“Let’s please don’t make that same mistake at Christmas,” Johnston said.
Johnston said the COVID-19 vaccine wouldn’t be in Ohio County the first week of 2021.
“We should have (the vaccine), but it’s just not coming to us quickly enough,” Johnston said. “When it does come, we will first be (vaccinating) our frontline workers, our ambulance workers and nurses and doctors at the hospital.”
Johnston explained around that time, the county will receive another wave of vaccine and will vaccinate those in long-term-care facilities.
Johnston ended his update by wishing Ohio County a merry Christmas and pleading with everyone to “please, be careful.”
To view Johnston’s full update, click here.