The first five long term care facilities in Kentucky have received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine with the state hoping to have all residents and staff who work with COVID patients to be vaccinated by March.
CVS and Walgreens are working to administer the Moderna vaccine to long term care facilities, which have accounted for 71-percent of Kentucky’s deaths linked to the virus.
11 hospitals in the state last week received the Pfizer COVID vaccine to give to front line medical workers in those facilities. Dr. Ashley Montgomery-Yates works in the COVID area of the University of Kentucky Medical Center, one of the hospitals to receive the first batch of vaccines. She said she is comfortable giving the vaccine to other workers and has seen minimal side effects so far.
click to download audioPublic Health Commissioner Sr. Steven Stack said people who are currently infected with the virus should not get the vaccine until they have recovered fully.
click to download audioDr. Montgomery-Yates said the recovery process differs from person to person but isn’t complete until a return to a previous normal with no symptoms has occurred.
click to download audioOver the weekend, the chief medical officer for England said in a statement that the U.K. had informed the World Health Organization about a mutant strain of COVID. He added there was no evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects treatments.
Dr. Montgomery-Jones said there is no evidence right now that says the latest vaccines would not also work to fight the new strand.
click to download audioGovernor Andy Beshear said Monday that he had no plans to make COVID vaccines mandatory in Kentucky.
