Hepatitis A continues to spread around Ky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Health officials say hepatitis A is continuing to spread around Kentucky.

WKYT-TV cited the Kentucky Department for Public Health in reporting that there were 1,094 cases and eight deaths from the outbreak as of the first week of July. The agency says 18 counties reported new cases during that week.

Jefferson County, where Kentucky’s outbreak began last fall, has the most cases with 525 reported. Most than half of Kentucky’s 120 counties have reported at least one case.

Hepatitis A is transmitted by oral contact with fecal matter.

It attacks the liver and causes symptoms including abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, fever and jaundice.

Police: Toddler drowns at home

BURLINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Police in Kentucky say a toddler has drowned in a backyard swimming pool.

Boone County sheriff’s spokesman Maj. Tom Scheben says in a news release 2-year-old Emmitt Lay was pronounced dead Saturday night at a hospital in Florence.

The statement says the boy was with other family members at the home in Burlington when he apparently slipped out the rear door and made his way up the ladder to the pool. The child’s grandparents found him within minutes of his disappearance.

Foul play isn’t suspected.

Escaped Ky. jail inmate captured in W.Va.

INEZ, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky jail inmate accused of assaulting a deputy jailer and escaping in a stolen police car has been captured in West Virginia.

News outlets reported Saturday that authorities said Mark Allen Crouch was apprehended in Wayne County, West Virginia.

The sheriff’s office in Martin County, Kentucky, said Crouch escaped from a jail transport on July 9. Officials said he overpowered a deputy jailer and fled in a police vehicle.

Martin County Sheriff John Kirk said in a Facebook post that several police agencies were involved in the search and a tip from the public “finally paid off.”

Crouch has been charged with assault on a police officer, wanton endangerment and theft of a vehicle.

Group getting $3.4M to help homeless youth in Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The federal government is granting $3.4 million to fight youth homelessness in Louisville.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant is giving the money to the Coalition for the Homeless to “reduce and eventually eliminate youth and young adult homelessness in Louisville.”

The grants are given to selected communities to create plans to address homelessness for unaccompanied youth 24 years old and younger.

Natalie Harris, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, says the group had about 70 community partners that helped make the opportunity possible. She says the goal is to eliminate youth homelessness in the city by 2020.