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Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley announced the number confirmed COVID-19 cases in Harlan County is now at seven, with several of the individuals now hospitalized.

The positive cases include a 26-year-old male (recovered), 74-year-old female (symptomatic; quarantined), 55-year-old male (symptomatic; quarantined), 20-year-old male (recovering), 46-year-old male (symptomatic; hospitalized), 68-year-old male (symptomatic; hospitalized) and 68-year-old female (symptomatic; hospitalized).

“Please keep these individuals and their families in your thoughts and prayers as they battle this virus. I sincerely ask you to do this,” he said.

Mosley added the Harlan County Health Department has conducted contact tracing. Close contacts of the positive cases are also quarantined and are being monitored for symptoms.

“Outside of the two sets of folks who live in the same households with each other, there is no known connection between any of the other cases. If you were a close contact, the health department has already contacted you or will contact you if you are a contact of a case in the future,” Mosley said. “All of us should continue to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, loss of taste and smell. If we have those symptoms, we need to call our healthcare provider about getting tested or what level of care we need.”

Mosley said the first positive case of COVID-19 in Kentucky was confirmed on March 6, with the first COVID-19 test being conducted in Harlan County on March 17.

As of 7 p.m. on June 8:

• 1,092 tests have been conducted in Harlan County
• 1,052 of the tests have been conducted on Harlan County residents
• 27 tests have been conducted on people from other counties
• 13 tests have been conducted on people from other states
• 1,038 tests have been negative
• 47 tests are presently pending

“This does not include tests that were negative on residents of Harlan County who were tested out of county and out of state,” Mosley said.

“I will continue to provide you a weekly COVID-19 update each Monday. If at any time during this pandemic we have another confirmed positive case in Harlan County, I will provide that information to you with an update whenever that occurs, no matter what day that is as I’ve done the last 10 days.”

Monday was also the beginning of in-person voting in Kentucky for the primary election, which will be held on June 23.

“Today (Monday) seemed to go very smooth with this process at the courthouse,” Mosley said.

“You can make an appointment to come in and cast your ballot early from June 9 until 22 by calling the county clerk’s office at 606-573-3636. You can also request a ballot be mailed to you by calling this number or going online to govoteky.com. It’s very simple to do. You can either mail your ballot back to the courthouse or you can drop it off here in the ballot drop box in the lobby of the courthouse.”