Following up on a story 13 News brought you last week that questioned the positivity rate per county calculation, Governor Beshear addressed these questions this week in his press conferences.
How you get the positive rate is by dividing the positive cases by the total number of tests, then multiple that by 100 to get the percentage.
According to White House data released by the state, Warren, Barren and Logan counties are in the ‘red zone’ with positive rates likely over 10 percent.
“Here are the red zone counties, and this isn’t a – ‘I’m not going to believe Andy Beshear’ – this is the Trump administration that is putting this out,” said Beshear on Wednesday. “So, if you’re in one of these counties saying we should open things up then you’re not believing the Trump administration, you’re not believe the Beshear administration, I guess you’re just not believing. To address a problem and to get to a better place we have to recognize a problem and take the steps needs.”
Meanwhile, the Barren River District Health Department has confirmed to 13 News several times that they only receive positive test results, and not all labs are required to report negative results. Beshear recently called the data ‘imperfect’ when questioned about it at a press conference, but says it still gives a good idea of where each counties are at.
“How does the White House get their positive rate when we believe that there could or would be a high positive rate? We don’t have exactly how they do their calculations, we have talked to them a little bit,” said Beshear on Tuesday. “They’re pulling CDC data. But, while imperfect it gives a good idea of where the White House — looking at the best data that you have — believes our counties fall into and where the highest rate of concern is.”
That new data from the White House also had the ‘yellow zone,’ which is counties with a positive rate between 5 and 10 percent. There are multiple counties in our viewing area in that zone including, Christian, Campbell, Grayson, Muhlenberg, Hart, Simpson, Edmonson and Butler. Again this is all according to that White House data released by the state.