There’s Now Some Days With No New COVID-19 Cases Here

62 Confirmed County Deaths Linked to Pandemic

Fayette County Chief of Emergency Management Craig Moreau gave an update on the state of the coronavirus in Fayette County last Friday.

“Overall, we are in a highly improved position in comparison to where we were a few weeks ago and especially compared to where we were a few months ago,” Moreau said.

He said the average hospitalization rate has stood at around three per day on average and those requiring ICU hospitalization have averaged zero since May 18.

Moreau said the last confirmed death due to COVID-19 was on May 11. He said the County has had 62 coronavirus deaths that were confirmed by death certificates since the virus first appeared early last year.

“We are now beginning to have days with zero new cases reported by PCR or antigen confirmation,” Moreau said. “This is a very positive development that we have not seen in over a year.”

Moreau spoke about the positive developments at the Fayette County Commissioners Court meeting on May 27.

“It’s still floating around, and it may be around with us for a long, long time, possibly forever,” he said at the meeting. “But it’s not bringing the whole community down.”

Weber asked Moreau at the meeting, “When is someone going to stand up and say the pandemic is over?”

“I will say that right now,” Moreau said. “Health experts disagree on this, because there is no set definition. But in my calculus, a pandemic is something that shuts down the whole world at large. That’s not going on right now. People are going about, doing business. I just got back from a trip overseas. Tourism is firing up.

“This is a serious thing,” Moreau added. “Just like the seasonal flu is a serious thing and cancer is a serious thing. All these serious things that kill a lot of people don’t stop our lives, don’t stop our economy. In my calculus, we are past the pandemic phase and we are in the endemic phase. It could be that way for the rest of our lives or it could fade away.”