Kentucky COVID cases are once again escalating, hitting the highest count in the past nine weeks.

“Last time we were at this level was the week of October the 11th,” said Gov. Andy Beshear at Monday’s news conference. 

Beshear blamed the continued increase on the delta variant of the virus, which he called “our enemy No. 1.” The new omicron variant has yet to be recorded in Kentucky. 

COVID hospitalizations and ICU rates are also increasing. 

There were 1,077 people in Kentucky’s hospitals for COVID as of yesterday, 310 of which are in the ICU. There are 168 Kentuckians on ventilators. 

“Every single indication of how much COVID we have in the Commonwealth is going up,” said Beshear. 

There is some good news, however: Kentucky’s vaccination rates are on the upswing. 

“The great news is, we saw more vaccinations over this last weekend than we have seen in a long time, in every stage of the vaccination process,” Beshear said. “This is how we fight back against this virus.”

So far, 2.7 million people in Kentucky have received at least one vaccine dose, and 640,061 have received a booster shot.