CARROLL COUNTY, Ky. — Kentucky should be able to start giving health care workers the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week.
The state will receive 38,025 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Eleven hospitals will receive doses — including three in Louisville.
But many hospitals in the area, including hospitals in rural areas, are not going to get any of those first doses.
Only one county in the state is out of the red zone for COVID-19 cases, with some rural areas having higher incidence rates than Jefferson County. Still, vaccine allocation is not about need — it’s about resources.
"We understand that that type of vaccine requires special handling, special equipment," said Jennifer Tyree, director of nursing at Carroll County Memorial Hospital.
Tyree said she knows her hospital isn’t equipped for these first doses, which require a storage temperature of -70 degrees Celsius.
It’s a 25-bed facility with fewer resources than the hospitals in Louisville.
“That’s a very hard thing to do for location such as ours to have that type of freezer,” Tyree said.
However, Carroll County Memorial has been approved to get the next wave of vaccines, the Moderna vaccine.
According to Gov. Andy Beshear, 84 other acute care hospitals in the state that will get that second shipment of vaccines too.
“We were excited to hear that we were definitely going to receive the vaccine in the second wave,” Carroll County Memorial CEO Amy Haverly said.
North Central District Health Department, which covers Shelby, Spencer, Trimble and Henry Counties has also requested doses of the Moderna vaccine to go to first responders.
“We’ve been working for months with our emergency responders to identify who among them would be interested in the vaccine,” NCDHD Public Health Director Roanya Rice said.
Right now, the Moderna vaccine has not even been approved by the FDA for use. So dates the state has laid out for distribution are still tentative. But once it is cleared, both Carroll County Memorial and NCDHD will be ready to go.
“I think we’re all hoping for a little something extra under the tree this year and we get a Christmas present in the way of vaccines,” Rice said.
NCDHD has had a plan in plan for a scenario like this for a while — and will likely be doing drive thru vaccinations.
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