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Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Tuesday the federal government will be increasing Kentucky’s vaccine supply by an additional five percent, starting next week.

Combined with an increase announced last week, this means the state’s supply will increase by 22% during the week of Feb. 8, compared with the week of Jan. 25.

“The president announced that his administration is increasing our supply another 5%,” Beshear said. “Again, our challenge is supply, supply, supply.  Remember, we will get a vaccine to everybody, it’s just going to take some time.”

There were 2,443 new cases reported to state public health officials on Tuesday, which was a significant increase from the 1,623 on Monday, although the trend has been for lower numbers.  It also raises the pandemic total in Kentucky to 366,938.

Four counties had over 100 new cases: Jefferson 349, Boone 144, Fayette 140, and Kenton 132.  The remainder of the top ten counties were Madison 81, Campbell 78, Laurel 77, Warren 77, Daviess 75, and Pike 49.

The number of Kentuckians hospitalized stood at 1,335 on Tuesday up 21 from Monday.  Of them, 373 were in the ICU, 36 more than Monday.  However, those on a ventilator fell from 178 to 172.

While there were 32 more deaths reported Tuesday, that continued the decrease from the single-day record of 69, which was set last Thursday.  There have now been 3,812 deaths in Kentucky, since the first one in March.

The governor also noted Tuesday was the fifth day in a row that the state’s COVID-19 positivity rate has stayed under 9%.

“Here in Kentucky and across the county we are seeing case numbers declining and we want to continue to see that trend,” Beshear said. “Unfortunately, we also continue to see far more deaths than we’d like to. There are 13 individuals in this report who were only in their 50s and 60s when they passed away from this virus.”

To see the full daily COVID-19 report for Kentucky, which includes such information as the red zone counties and red zone recommendations, testing locations, the weekly White House Coronavirus Task Force reports for Kentucky, executive orders, vaccine distribution, and other information on the state’s pandemic response, go to kycovid19.ky.gov.