COVID-19 vaccines will be available in Kentucky before the end of the year with the state finalizing its plans on who will get them first.
Governor Andy Beshear said the first shipment of 38,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be distributed in mid-December with that number about one-third of what they were expecting. He said the vaccination involves two shots about three weeks apart and will be facilitated through Walgreens and CVS per a federal program.
The governor said 26,000 does from the first batch will go to long-term care residents and staff. Cases in those facilities have risen 65-percent in the past month while deaths there account for 66-percent of the state’s COVID mortality rate. Beshear estimated there were over 50,000 people in the high tier of long term care in the state.
click to download audioThe remaining 12,000 doses will go to front line COVID health care workers. Beshear said the state is working to finalize the list of where they will go across the state and said they would be free of charge.
The state expects 76,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine to arrive in the state two weeks after the Pfizer vaccine. Moderna applied for FDA approval Monday. Beshear said no one who got the Moderna vaccine in the latest trial developed a severe case of COVID-19, likening it instead to a minor cold. That in turn, would keep people out of the hospital and keep the health system from being overrun with patients.
Beshear said he hopes to add teachers and educators to the list after long-term care and front line workers so that schools can reopen sooner.
click to download audioThe governor is hopeful Kentucky will receive COVID-19 vaccine shipments from the federal government every two weeks.
In October, the governor said there was no plan by the state to make the vaccine mandatory and added Monday that he will receive the vaccine publicly to show his support.
click to download audioBeshear’s announcement came Monday when 2,124 new cases of the coronavirus were announced with a record-high positivity rate of 9.4-percent. 27-percent of the new cases came from Louisville and Lexington.
The state also reported 1,741 hospitalizations Monday, the second-highest number, and a new ICU high of 421 people. The month of November saw a COVID case increase of nearly 23,000 compared to October and an increase of 123 deaths linked to the virus.
