Governor Beshear and Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack have outlined plans for the next phase of coronavirus vaccinations. Currently the COVID-19 vaccine is being administered to front line care givers and those in nursing homes.
The state plans to begin vaccinating those 70 and older along with first responders and educators around the first of February. Dr. Stack said during Monday’s briefing all those associated with educating children will get shots.
“It is all persons who are in the school buildings, regardless of their role. So again, this means its teachers. It means if you’re in the school building itself, you’re administrative personnel. It’s means it’s housekeeping. It means its maintenance, bus drivers. People who are directly involved with the students and the learning environment,” said Dr. Stack.
Governor Beshear said 40 additional sites will receive vaccine doses for the first time this week. He admitted there will be distribution challenges, saying quote, “It’s not going to be clean the entire time. We’re building the airplane as we’re flying it, but right now we believe we’ve got the right plan in the right way to distribute this vaccine equitably across the state.”
Beshear was asked about incidents in Lexington and Louisville where too much Pfizer vaccine was thawed too quickly and then distributed to the general public. “Do I believe it came from a good place? Yes because they didn’t want any of it to go to waste. But, should it have been done differently? Yes. Are there procedures in place that should have been followed that would have done it differently? Yes,” replied Beshear.
Governor Beshear announced 1,455 new cases of coronavirus Monday along with eight deaths. The positivity rate stood at 7.97%. The governor says the recent trend in COVID cases indicate a plateauing and possibly even some decline. Beshear admitted some catching up is required in tallying testing results over the holiday period.
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