New Kentucky coronavirus cases continue their decline. 2,898 new cases and 23 deaths.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 2,898 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday in Kentucky, bringing the case total to 230,693 as hundreds more health care workers are being immunized.
Nearly 13,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have now been delivered to 11 regional hospitals around the state, Beshear said in a written update, and some began immunizing in small groups Wednesday afternoon, including at Mercy Health-Lourdes Hospital in Paducah. Most received shipments of 975 doses, except for UK HealthCare in Lexington and Norton Healthcare in Louisville, which got close to 2,000 doses, each.
Other hospitals that received vials of the vaccine earlier in the week have already begun scheduling days and times for staff to receive the first dose. At UK HealthCare, which received 1,950 doses yesterday, more than 250 doses were administered Wednesday to staff who work directly with COVID-19 patients and more are scheduled for Thursday.
“With these life-saving vaccines being administered right now to our frontline workers, the beginning of the end of the coronavirus is in sight,” Beshear said. “We are also continuing to see fewer cases week over week.” Beshear said Wednesday’s tally of new cases is lower than last Wednesday’s increase.
Kentucky was allotted 38,025 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in this first distribution wave. Like the Moderna vaccine, which is still awaiting emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine requires a follow-up booster shot, which should be administered roughly three weeks after the first shot. Kentucky is slated to receive a second shipment of 38,025 doses in early January, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Beshear also announced 23 more deaths on Wednesday, lifting the death toll to 2,262. The rate of Kentuckians testing positive was up less than a percentage point from Tuesday, to 8.57 percent.
There are 1,793 people hospitalized with the virus (five more than Tuesday), and of those, 460 are in intensive care (22 more), and 239 are on ventilators (seven fewer).
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 5:29 PM.
