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November was the worst month on record for new COVID cases in Jessamine County.

After four consecutive record-breaking weeks of new cases in the community, November saw 895 new cases of the potentially deadly respiratory virus.

Of those, 255 were reported last week, which is the most ever reported in a single week.

November added more cases than the previous three record months combined. There were 342 cases reported in October, 149 reported in September and 218 reported in August.

The new cases reported in November account for nearly half (47.9 percent) of all cases reported in the community in March.

As of Thursday morning, there had been 1,935 total positive cases reported in the community.

Of those, 336 were active, 1,562 had recovered and 11 were hospitalized.

There have been 37 deaths attributed to the virus in Jessamine County.

The vast majority of cases remain among the 18 to 30 age range, with nearly 500 of the total cases involving residents in that age range.

There have been 6,677 drive-through tests performed by the Jessamine County Health Department since April, with an overall positivity rate of 4.3 percent.

Of those testing positive, 59 percent have been asymptomatic.

The positivity rate last week was 11.47 percent. Already this week, the rate has reached more than 10.5 percent.

Tests are still being offered by appointment only at the Health Department. To schedule an appointment, call 859-885-4149.

With the surge in cases, Jessamine remains in the state Department for Public Health’s red zone, which is for counties with an incidence rate of 25 or higher. Jessamine’s incidence rate was more than twice that, at 56.2, as of Tuesday’s statewide incidence map.

Of Kentucky’s 120 counties, all but three were categorized as red on Tuesday. Those three counties were categorized as orange, which is for counties with accelerated spread, or an incidence rate of 10 to 25.

The seven-day incidence rate is calculated by taking the total number of unique cases in each county over the past seven days, divided by seven to get a daily average, divided by the U.S. Census Bureau county population and multiplied by 100,000 to get the incidence per 100,000 people.

As of Tuesday afternoon, which is The Journal’s press deadline, there had been 186,765 positive cases in the state leading to 1,980 deaths.

There have been more than 2.8 million tests performed with a 9.62 percent positivity rate.

At least 28,468 Kentuckians have recovered.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S., there have been more than 13 million cases of the virus, leading to more than 267,000 deaths.