ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — As coronavirus cases rise in Kentucky, counties are being added to the White House Task Force’s "red zone" list.

As of Monday, Kentucky has 55 counties on that list. Lincoln Trail District Health Department covers public health for six counties, five of them in the red zone. To help mitigate the spread, their administrative office’s parking lot is now a testing site, which opened Monday. 

“When we can test someone, and we can identify them as a confirmed case, it allows us to isolate them as quickly as possible to include any close contacts they may have, and that decreases the chance of it being spread to other people,” said Lincoln Trail District Health Department Spokesperson Terrie Burgan.

Burgan said before starting this testing site, the department was mainly focused on educating the public about COVID-19 and doing contact tracing, but a partnership with the Kentucky Department of Public Health made this testing site possible.

“We saw about 2,700 cases from March to end of September. October alone, we’re already at 1,200, and so we know that this is going to be our highest number of cases in one month since this thing started,” Burgan said.

Anyone 18 and up with or without symptoms can get tested for free, with or without health insurance. Also, there is no requirement to be a resident living in the area. However, the hope is residents in the six counties Lincoln Trail District Health Department serves will use it, which are Hardin, Larue, Marion, Meade, Nelson, and Washington. Burgan said testing will also be in Radcliff and Breckinridge. 

Five of those counties, Hardin, Marion, Meade, Nelson, and Washington are in the red zone. Larue is in the orange zone.

“Our total cases for the district is 3,921, and Hardin County makes up about 46% of those cases. The majority are female. Average age for the district, for all those six counties, is about 42. The average age for Hardin county is about 40," Burgan told Spectrum News 1.

Burgan said contact tracing shows about 60% of positive cases are getting COVID-19 from a household exposure, meaning from another family member. She added that approximately 77% of positive cases are symptomatic, and the other 23% are asymptomatic, meaning they don’t have symptoms.

Until there is a vaccine, Burgan said the strategy is for the public to do what health departments know works, which is following CDC guidelines of wearing a mask, social distancing six feet or more, washing hands for at least 20 seconds, and not attend mass gatherings, including during the holidays. 

The Lincoln Trail District Health Department's free COVID-19 testing lasts until Nov. 6, except it is closed Nov. 3. Testing takes place weekdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the pre-determined testing site for that day. The test being administered is the PCR nasal swab, not the rapid test, so results take two to three days. Registration is available online.

Currently, there are over 300 coronavirus testing sites in Kentucky.