RICHMOND, Ky. — Across the Commonwealth, COVID-19 incidence rates are climbing higher.

The Madison County COVID-19 incidence rate jumped 15 points in a matter of 24 hours, and health departments are pointing to the holiday surge.

“We have had a recent increase in cases. We can attribute the rising cases to the recent holidays, Christmas and New Years,” said Kelley McBride, PIO with the Madison County Health Department.

McBride said they did see a downward trend for a while but on Wednesday, the incidence rate jumped to 90 percent for a county with a population of only 93,000 people.

Compare that to Jefferson County with a 69.5 incidence rate the same day with an even bigger population of 766,000 people.

“I know four or five people that have had it,” said Steven Lewis, a store owner in Richmond. “I’m not taking any chances.”

Since last February, Lewis hasn’t played with his grandkids in Danville and that meant the holidays were distant.

“I drove down his driveway, got out, took the presents up to the door and I saw them 15 or 20 feet away with the mask on but I didn't go in,” Lewis said.

Meanwhile, the vaccination efforts are ramping up.

Madison County is in Tier 1, but they have a growing waiting list of almost 4,000 people.

“We wanted to have people on the waiting list so that we can  possibly put them in the correct tier,” McBride said.

So people like Lewis can have some sort of normalcy.

“I hope to get the vaccine soon into Madison County cuz I want to take it to go see my grandkids,” Lewis said.

Gov. Andy Beshear said they’re monitoring the data of COVID-19 cases following the holidays. He’s hoping this surge is temporary.