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COVID-19 vaccine appointments now open in Louisville for remainder of Phase 1C

Essential workers and those with qualifying conditions in Phase 1C can now make appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Opportunities to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Louisville are increasing.

The largest vaccine site in the city at Broadbent Arena will start offering availability to people under 60 in Phase 1C.

Associate Medical Director for the Louisville Metro Dept. of Health and Wellness Dr. Sarahbeth Hartlage said the decision to transition fully into Phase 1C aligns with the state following Governor Beshear's announcement.

The change to phase 1C includes individuals ages 16-59 who have qualifying medical conditions and essential employees.

“Our primary focus right now is adults 60 and older,” Dr. Hartlage said. “We are hopeful we can finish this group by the end of March before beginning the transition to the remainder of phase 1C.”

Wednesday LouVax site switched from distributing the Moderna vaccine to the Pfizer vaccine.

That transition day led to some long wait times, with some people waiting hours to get a vaccine.

“The wait times that we saw on Wednesday were definitely an outlier,” Dr. Hartlage said. “Most people spend less than an hour here, and I would absolutely anticipate that when you come back a few weeks from now that we would be much more in line with that 45 minutes or an hour of time.”

The switch from Moderna to Pfizer came from the Kentucky Department of Public Health.

“Sites like this one that typically run at a high efficiency and have a lot of resources available to us are more able to handle the specific challenges that come with handling that Pfizer product,” Dr. Hartlage said.

If you got an initial Moderna shot there, they will still have your Moderna booster.

If you haven’t had a chance to get a shot, one might be coming your way.

“We're gonna have a lot of supply of vaccines starting here in the city, in the next two to three weeks or so,” Mayor Greg Fischer said.

Thursday President Biden announced he will direct states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1. 

“We're currently continuing with adults over the six over 60 and expect to have them all scheduled soon in the coming days and weeks,” Dr. Hartlage said.

That means the rest of 1C could be coming through LouVax starting in April.

At this time, 36% of Louisville has received at least one dose and 13% are now fully vaccinated.

►Contact reporter Rose McBride at rmcbride@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter. 

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