FRANKFORT, Ky. — COVID-19 vaccine doses will be arriving in Kentucky soon, and among the first people to receive the vaccine will be long-term care residents and healthcare workers.
During a daily COVID-19 briefing, Governor Andy Beshear and State Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack outlined the plan to distribute the vaccine doses and the importance of allocating the first shipment to the most vulnerable Kentuckians.
Kentucky is expected to receive an initial shipment of 38,025 doses of the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer as early as mid-December.
“Those will be provided to 38,000 individuals. We can go ahead and provide the first of these shots, and then we will receive the booster shots about three weeks later,” said Gov. Beshear. “We will be ready on moment one that we’re able to provide these vaccines.”
Approximately 26,000 of those doses will go to long-term care facilities, which is where about 66% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths come from. The governor said he expects to see a dramatic reduction in the number of deaths once long-term care patients have received the vaccine.
“Every week we do not vaccinate long-term care residents, we lose them. With vaccines, we can provide such better protection to these individuals,” said Gov. Beshear.
About 12,000 doses of the initial vaccine shipment will go to healthcare workers in Kentucky.
Since long-term care residents often need the most care when they are infected with coronavirus, vaccinations are expected to help reduce the number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization and free up healthcare workers to help other patients.
“There is an extensive process in play here. First of all, these companies had to build these vaccines, they had to do the research, they had to demonstrate that they were safe,” said Dr. Stack. “Concurrently, we’ve had to consider how we will use these vaccines when very small quantities are available at the beginning, but there are many, many people who need the vaccine.”
Roughly two weeks after the shipment of the Pfizer vaccine, Kentucky is projected to receive 76,700 doses of the vaccine manufactured by Moderna. The governor did not specify how these doses will be allocated.
However, even with the good news, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer warned it will still take a while until everyone can get the vaccine so we can’t let our guard down in the meantime.
“While people want to be optimistic, and I am too, about the vaccine we have got to take care of business today," Fischer said. "That means taking care of your loved ones, people you know, and you do that through those basic measures of masking and distancing and hand washing.”
The governor said the state is currently practicing how the vaccines will be distributed through an end-to-end exercise with the CDC. The run-throughs and distribution to long-term care facilities will help the state get ready for larger scale vaccine distribution in the future.
“There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not out of the woods yet. If we all mask up and socially distance, we can buy our hospitals the time they need,” Dr. Stack said.
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