New Kentucky COVID-19 cases dip below two prior Mondays. 1,972 cases and 10 deaths.
As he tentatively announced more shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Kentucky later this month, Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday reported 1,972 new cases of COVID-19 across Kentucky and 10 additional deaths.
Beshear said it was the lowest increase on a Monday in three weeks.
Last week was the deadliest week so far for COVID-19 deaths in Kentucky, and it also brought record numbers of new infections. Still, the rate of growth appears to be leveling off, which Beshear said may be an early sign that spread of the virus is slowing. ”If that’s the case. . . that’s really good news,” he said, noting that Kentucky could still face a surge of cases attributable to Thanksgiving.
On Monday, the positivity rate had dropped slightly to 9.60 percent. There are 1,700 people hospitalized with the virus, 410 of whom are in intensive care and 210 are on ventilators.
Kentucky’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 2,000 last week, and earlier on Monday, Beshear observed a wreath-laying ceremony outside the Capitol to honor those who have died. At least 2,082 people have died, and the total number of cases statewide has reached 202,592.
Two coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are awaiting emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this Thursday. Once that happens, Kentucky is slotted to get its first shipment of about 38,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in time to administer by December 15. Beshear on Monday said Kentucky could receive 76,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine during the week of Christmas, and another 33,800 the week after.
Additional shipments of the Pfizer vaccine are possible in December, but Beshear said he’s waiting for confirmation from the federal government before announcing those numbers.
That means Kentucky could receive 150,000 or more doses of a vaccine by the end of the year. But most, if not all, will be reserved for health care workers, and long-term care facility staff and residents, who are among the most at-risk populations for contracting and dying from the virus.
Sixty-six percent of Kentucky’s coronavirus deaths have been residents of long-term care facilities, which is why “we want to be aggressive about vaccinating that population as quick as possible,” he said. On Monday, there were 324 new infections among nursing home residents and 268 nursing home staff, meaning there are more than 3,800 active cases in those facilities.
More than half of the first round of Pfizer doses are earmarked for that population, and the 12,675 remaining doses are going to frontline health care workers across 11 hospitals. All but two of those hospitals are getting shipments of 975 doses. UK HealthCare in Lexington and Norton Healthcare in Louisville are getting double that amount.
Distribution of the Moderna vaccine will be more flexible, Beshear said.
Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which needs to be stored in specialty ultra-cold storage freezers, the Moderna vaccine just needs to be refrigerated, which makes storage easier. The Moderna vaccine can also be divvied into groups of 100 doses, which means distribution across more hospitals and nursing homes will also be easier.
Vaccines will not become widely available to the general population until well into next year. Until then, distribution of doses will be piecemeal. “There is never going to be as much as we want at the time we want,” Beshear said. “There is not enough to go around for everybody at the same time.”
Knowing that, he asked Kentuckians to be patient. “You’re worried about losing somebody between now and when we could get the vaccine,” he said. But “but we’re going to have to ask for patience, and it’s the hardest patience that anybody could ask for.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 4:43 PM.
