Case Information
As of 4 p.m. Oct. 8, Gov. Beshear said there were at least 77,455 coronavirus cases in Kentucky, 884 of which were newly reported Thursday. One hundred and eight of the newly reported cases were from children ages 0-18, of which 32 were children ages 0-5.
“This is about 20 cases less than we had this day last week. It’s about 200 more than we had in the two preceding weeks before that,” said Gov. Beshear. “It gives you an idea again that even excluding some of the backlog cases that came in yesterday we are unfortunately on track to have the single largest week thus far in this epidemic.”
Unfortunately, Gov. Beshear reported 11 new deaths Thursday, raising the total to 1,234 Kentuckians lost to the virus.
The deaths reported Thursday include a 62-year-old woman from Bell County; a 95-year-old woman from Boyd County; a 60-year-old woman from Bullitt County; an 80-year-old woman from Fayette County; two women, ages 63 and 85, and a 58-year-old man from Jefferson County; a 65-year-old man from Lincoln County; an 86-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man from Scott County; and a 31-year-old man from Warren County.
As of Thursday, there have been at least 1,592,037 coronavirus tests performed in Kentucky. The positivity rate was 4.10%, and at least 13,113 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.
For additional information, including up-to-date lists of positive cases and deaths, as well as breakdowns of coronavirus infections by county, race and ethnicity, click here. To see all recent daily reports, click here.
Information about COVID-19 and schools is also being made available. To view the reports, click here for K-12 and here for colleges and universities.
Elections Update
Today, Secretary of State Michael Adams provided an update on how many absentee ballots had already been requested and returned. He also shared a video about how to complete an absentee ballot for Kentuckians who had not yet voted through this method.
“What we wanted, the Governor and I, was to make sure we had absentee ballots available for those who need them,” said Secretary Adams. “We’ve preserved that, but we also didn’t want to over-test the system with having more absentee ballots than we can manage with our current infrastructure.
“Six hundred and twenty-five thousand absentee ballots, my guess is it’s going to be, that’s right in the sweet spot. That’s enough that we see that it’s working, that word is getting out, that voters who have concerns were able to utilize this effectively but it’s also not so many that it will overwhelm the system.”
He also covered all relevant voting deadlines for Kentuckians to remember.
“So again, tomorrow is the deadline to request an absentee ballot. Starting on Tuesday, the thirteenth of October, we’re going to have in-person voting available statewide six days a week. This year there’s not an Election Day, there are 19 Election Days,” said Secretary Adams. “You can go vote Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it’s up to you. Do what’s convenient and help us space out the crowds and ensure we can have social distancing.”