Kentucky has experienced its third straight week of declining COVID-19 case numbers since the initial surge of the Omicron variant, Gov. Andy Beshear announced in a Feb. 14 update.
Kentucky reported 35,961 cases over the preceding week. This is still the state’s sixth-highest weekly case report since the beginning of the pandemic, but it is a far cry from the 81,473 cases reported two weeks prior. In addition, Kentucky’s test positivity rate has dropped by almost half over those two weeks, from 33% down to 17.9%.
If the downward trend continues, Kentucky will be able to pull itself out of the red zone – the most serious category, with 25 or more cases per 100,000 people – by mid-March.
The country at large appears to be moving toward the next phase of the pandemic: states including Rhode Island, Delaware, and Nevada ended their mask mandates in the week following Feb. 7, while Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois are set to end their mask mandates on Feb. 28. Furthermore, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Financial Times that the pandemic phase of COVID-19 could end soon. He also told the Washington Post that the United States is “on the road to normality.”
“Everything I am saying is based on a big caveat,” Fauci told The Washington Post. “We must be prepared for the eventuality that we might get a completely different variant that breaks through all of the protection that you get from prior infection.”
Countries beyond the U.S. are showing signs of moving on past the pandemic as well. As of Feb. 14, Australia intends to lift its two-year-long travel ban on Feb. 21. “The condition is you must be double vaccinated to come to Australia. That’s the rule. Everyone is expected to abide by it,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison added in the announcement of the ban being lifted.
Meanwhile, countries including India, Greece, Portugal, and the UK are in talks to lift their travel bans.
