Governor Andy Beshear announced 11 straight weeks of declining COVID-19 cases in Kentucky in his daily announcement on Monday.

The state added 310 new positive cases of COVID-19 Monday and 11 new coronavirus-related deaths — most of which did not not occur in March.

Kentucky’s positivity rate fell slightly to 2.89% on Monday, Beshear said. The decline in the state’s positivity rate has remained consistent over the past 11 weeks, although there have been signs of plateauing during that period.

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“We have indications that we could see cases plateau,” Beshear said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily going to be the case because go back four weeks ago, we saw the same thing, we put in the hard work and we further reduced it.” 

Over 1.3 million Kentuckians, approximately 40% of all adults 18 years and older in the state, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Beshear said. 115,820 people were vaccinated for the first time between March 23 and March 29.

“The pace [of the vaccine rollout] continues to be a real positive,” Beshear said.

Beshear said as of March 29, over 6,000 Kentuckians have died from COVID-19.

“It is staggering,” Beshear said. “The amount of death and grief is hard to take.”

Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said at least 15 Kentucky counties have at least one case of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant that originated in the United Kingdom.

Beshear said one of the 41 cases of the U.K. variant in Kentucky was discovered in Warren County. Stack said the state’s vaccine rollout is engaged in a race with the U.K. variant.

“The vaccines are our exit strategy,” Stack said. “The vaccines are a shot of hope that get us out of this mess and get us back to our daily lives as safely and as quickly as possible.”

Leo Bertucci can be reached at [email protected]  Follow him on Twitter @leober2chee.