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As 2020 came to a close, Clark County saw a large increase in local COVID-19 cases.

On Wednesday, Dec. 30, the Clark County Health Department reported 50 new case of the virus, which is the most ever reported in a single day. During the week from Dec. 23-30, there were 149 new cases reported.

Then, between Dec. 31 to Jan. 3, the department reported 75 more cases.

With those new numbers, the county is up to 1,580 new cases as of Sunday, and the county’s incidence rate is up to 67.75.

Of those total cases, 253 were active Sunday, which was the last day data was available before The Sun’s press deadline, and 1,309 had recovered.

There have been 18 deaths reported in Clark County.

There have been at least 47 hospitalizations with complications related to the virus. Local hospitalization data was last updated Dec. 4, and is expected to be updated early this month.

December was the highest month on record for new COVID cases with at least 547 new cases being reported.

The previous highest month was November, when there were 340 cases reported, marking an increase of more than 200 cases month-over-month.

In Kentucky, there have been at least 276,826 cases reported leading to 2,723 deaths.

There have been 3.48 million tests performed, and the state’s positivity rate was 11.12 percent on Sunday.

At least 37,375 Kentuckians have recovered.

According to the Dec. 27 White House Coronavirus Task Force report, Kentucky is in the red zone for new cases, and is ranked 35th in the nation for new cases.

The report states that Kentucky saw a decrease in new cases and a decrease in test positivity during the week from Dec. 19-25.

Between Dec. 19-25, on average, 398 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 125 patients with suspected COVID-19 were reported as newly admitted each day to hospitals in Kentucky.