Half of all Fayette County adults are now vaccinated. Here’s where that ranks in Kentucky.
Fayette County is halfway to vaccinating its entire adult population, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fayette County’s vaccination rate for residents 18 and older was 50 percent as of Monday afternoon, according to the CDC. That ranked third among all Kentucky counties. Woodford and Franklin counties were both ahead of Fayette. The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department was happy to reach the milestone, but acknowledged there’s still “a long way to go.”
“Getting half of Lexington’s adult population fully vaccinated shows how much the community has come together to slow COVID-19,” said Kevin Hall, spokesman for the Lexington health department.
More than a dozen vaccine sites are available around the county, according to city officials. The health department has previously said having a lot of health care resources in the area allows Lexington residents to have greater access to the vaccine than many other areas of Kentucky.
“The numerous vaccination sites – and it’s important to remember that these sites are also vaccinating people from throughout Kentucky and not just Fayette, so the work in Lexington is truly widespread – have made the vaccine increasingly available,” Hall said.
Vaccination obstacles still remain in Lexington
Vaccinations are open to anyone 16 or older in Kentucky, and there’s widespread access to vaccination appointments in Fayette County. But local officials still face obstacles of vaccine hesitancy and “hard-to-reach populations.”
“It’s taken about four months to get to 50 percent,” Hall said. “And now we have to work even harder to reach hard-to-reach populations, whether those are people who can’t leave their homes, people who speak languages other than English, people who are hesitant to get the vaccine or people with other barriers we need to overcome.”
Vaccine supply has outpaced demand in recent weeks, both locally and in several areas around the state. Facing the possibility of unfilled appointments, the Lexington health department opened its vaccine clinics to everyone 18 and older before the state directed everyone to do so.
The state reported last month that hundreds, if not thousands, of vaccine appointments around the state were going unfilled. The state decided at that point to open up vaccinations for everyone 16 and older.
Those looking for a vaccine appointment can visit lexingtonky.gov/vaccines for more information.
Lexington’s COVID-19 hospitalizations jump up
Despite an increasing vaccination rate and a relatively stagnant number of new cases, Lexington last week reported its most new coronavirus hospitalizations in a week since February.
“As much as we want this pandemic to be over, the numbers show we simply aren’t there yet,” Hall said. He added that it shows more people need to get vaccinated.
Lexington’s number of new infections has slowly crept up in the past few weeks. The local rolling seven-day average of new cases was 37.6 as of Saturday, which marked the fourth straight week in which the rolling average had increased. Prior to the consecutive weeks of increase, the city’s rolling average had dropped to its lowest point since last summer.