1,455 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases and 8 deaths. Here’s who gets the vaccine next.
Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday announced 1,455 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky and eight more deaths, raising the state’s total number of cases to 258,517 and increasing the death toll to 2,563.
As is typical on Mondays, Beshear said the number of newly reported cases is likely artificially low due to the holidays, lab schedules over the weekend, and a potential communication hindrance as a result of the Christmas morning bombing in Nashville that affected AT&T service.
Despite the lower-than-normal Monday numbers, metrics over the last month still suggest Kentucky is beginning to control the level of spread.
“Now we’ve not only plateaued it, but we’re starting to see cases decrease,” Beshear said Monday.
For instance, over the last month, Kentucky’s rate of new cases have been declining week over week, Beshear said, again lauding the previous temporary closures of indoor dining at bars and restaurants and limits on the size of group gatherings as a direct cause. The positivity rate also continues to drop, dipping below 8 percent on Monday to 7.97 percent.
“It’s safe to say, actually it’s certain to say that the steps we took . . . made a real difference,” the governor said. The number of new cases “two weeks from now will depend on decisions we made over Christmas and decisions we make over New Year’s,” he added.
There are 1,552 people hospitalized with the virus across the state, 411 of whom are in intensive care and 217 are on ventilators.
While new case numbers have started to trend downward statewide, Lexington reported its third consecutive week of declining new infections on Monday. Local health officials are nonetheless bracing for a potential post-Christmas surge in new cases, which wouldn’t come until early January. That’s in part why the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department has yet to categorize the city’s week-over-week case reduction a “trend,” a department spokeswoman said.
COVID vaccine schedule updated
Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to protect against the novel coronavirus continue to be administered across Kentucky to health care workers, and starting last week, residents and staff of long-term care facilities. At least 26,336 doses have so far been given to Kentuckians, and the state is slated to receive a total of 202,650 doses by the end of December.
Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said the state is poised to enter the next phase of vaccine distribution during the first week of February. Those eligible for a vaccine at that time will include people over the age of 70, emergency responders, and K-12 school personnel.
Last week was the first week CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens, both of which have federal contracts to distribute the vaccine, began immunizing residents of nursing and assisted living homes. Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said more than 3,000 residents and roughly 2,500 staff across 30 facilities were immunized last week.
The state, like most, is largely adhering to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance on who should get the vaccine when, which involves prioritizing those most at risk first. Since CVS and Walgreens hold federal contracts, both companies get to decide when and how to distribute their doses, which are primarily earmarked for residents and staff in long-term care facilities. The general population likely won’t have access to a vaccine until well into next year.
Some vaccines mistakenly given to general public
But over the weekend, two Walgreens locations in Lexington and Louisville reportedly administered doses of the Pfizer vaccine leftover from nursing homes to some in the general public who don’t yet qualify for a dose. Some vials were thawed too early and set to expire.
Beshear said that “shouldn’t have happened. If more of the Pfizer vaccine was thawed than they thought could be immediately used, what needs to happen is the next long-term care facility, the one that vaccine is supposed to be save for, needs to be contacted and they need to do what it takes to get it out to that facility in time.”
Members of the public who don’t qualify for a vaccine yet shouldn’t expect this to happen again, Beshear said: “There’s not going to be pop-up [vaccination] opportunities at Walgreens or CVS for the public to come in on a first-come, first-served basis.”
He said mistakes are inevitable — “I don’t think it was intentional, but it should’ve been done differently.” In the future, Beshear said his office will provide additional guidance to providers who may have leftover vaccines, if there’s no long-term care facility to immediately give those doses to, such as other at-risk populations.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 5:02 PM.
