Public health officials: COVID still prevalent following EKY flood

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - Even though our region has faced disaster in the past few weeks, public health officials want to remind everyone to follow COVID-19 safety precautions.

The flood brought many people together physically, which contributed to an increase in COVID transmission in our region.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re seeing a real increase in our COVID cases right now is people have had to come together to shelters, they’ve had to come together at resource distribution centers to get needed resources and so on,” said Scott Lockard, Public Health Director for the Kentucky River District Health Department. “Even though we have tried to take precautions at a lot of these places, we’re seeing the spread of COVID.”

With school starting for many children, Lockard said it is important for everyone to continue practicing all COVID safety measures.

”The case rates in all of our counties are red right now for transmission and the high community levels, so we should be taking precautions, we should still consider masking when going into high volume areas where there is lots of people,” said Lockard.

Recent CDC guidelines say, if you have been exposed to COVID, you are not required to quarantine, but it is still important to monitor yourself and test yourself five days after exposure to confirm your COVID status.

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