FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — On Friday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced in a press release that Kentucky's positivity rate for COVID-19 has dropped to 3.6 percent, making it the fourth straight day that Kentucky's positivity rate was under four percent.
"Our positivity rate has now dropped to 3.6%; that is our lowest rate in months," said Gov. Beshear. "When we asked for people to push off in-person classes in our schools until Sept. 28, it was so we could get our positivity rate down to a safer level."
As of 4 p.m. Sept. 18, Gov. Beshear said there were at least 60,128 #COVID19 cases in Kentucky, 777 of which were newly reported Friday. https://t.co/8U3Fz7PaCa https://t.co/06OIjeNUb3
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) September 18, 2020
Gov. Beshear also announced that 777 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Kentucky, bringing the state's COVID-19 case total to 60,128. Of the 777 new Kentuckians to test positive for COVID-19, 97 were 18 or younger, including a two-month-old.
Eight new coronavirus-related deaths, including a 96-year-old man from Fayette County, were also reported. The eight new coronavirus-related deaths bring Kentucky's coronavirus-related death total to 1,101.
The other deaths reported Friday include an 85-year-old man from Bell County, a 96-year-old man from Christian County, a 90-year-old woman from Greenup County, a 53-year-old man from Hopkins County, a 73-year-old woman from Laurel County, a 78-year-old woman from Pulaski County, and a 91-year-old woman from Scott County.
"This is tough news today," said Gov. Beshear. "It only took 10 days for us to go from 1,000 deaths to over 1,100. This is why we’re working so hard to keep our case numbers down."
As of Friday, there have been at least 1,115,105 coronavirus tests performed in Kentucky. The positivity rate was 3.60%, and at least 11,168 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.
