LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Lexington Fayette County Health Department (LFCHD) is continuing to see an increase in COVID-19 cases as the new year begins.

What You Need To Know

  • Lexington Fayette County Health Department seeing rising COVID-19 cases

  • The recent rise may be related to the holidays

  • Labs were closed and are now catching up on reports

  • Lexington has 25,992 positive COVID-19 cases as of Jan. 13

Some health officials believe the recent rise in cases may be related to Christmas and New Years' gatherings. 

Christina King, communication generalist for LFCHD says the increase in COVID-19 cases in Lexington could be connected to a backlog in reports while labs were closed for the holidays. With most labs still catching up on their paperwork, King says to get caught up their results from prior tests are now being combined with the current testing results.

“We just finished up two weeks in a row. A short week, many offices, many laboratories, but many medical offices were only open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So that means a lot of the tests that were run those days there became a backlog of reports to get to us,” King said.

Throughout the holidays, King says the health department received very few reports on businesses staying open late and not complying with COVID-19 policies. 

“We had some reports of some businesses that were staying open late or not, you know, not requiring their patrons to use proper social distancing and wearing their masks. But as far as I know, no one alerted me of any large gatherings, which makes me proud of my city,” King said.

The LFCHD says it will be watching this week closely for any spike in COVID-19 cases that may be associated with the holiday season.

“With COVID, I don't think we ever know what to expect. It's one day at a time and one hurdle and one challenge that time,” King said.