Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reported 3,114 new installments of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the state anticipates the appearance of the first doses of vaccine. That number represents a decline of more than 1,000 compared to the cases reported last Tuesday, indicating that the rate of development of infections within the state might be slowing. Beshear announced 20 new deaths and the state's rate of positive test results also dropped slightly to 9.5%.
Over the following two weeks, Beshear said, Kentucky will receive more than 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna.
Beshear said a lot of the populace will ultimately want to get the vaccine before restrictions are changed.
“Remember, using the vaccine, we know that it may prevent you from getting sick or keep you from getting really sick,” he explained. “What we don’t know is that if you are able to spread it with other people, therefore we have to assume until we obtain that data that you could.”
Health care workers and long-term care residents will receive some of the first doses. Although large COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in jails and prisons, Beshear said people incarcerated won't be among the first groups to become inoculated.
“Now corrections officers, they are within the first couple groups. And when we are able to get the corrections officers vaccinated, hopefully we are able to decrease the spread in those facilities,” he said.
Elsewhere round the Ohio Valley West Virginia reported 932 new cases of the coronavirus . The University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation COVID-19 projections show their state is close to intensive care unit capacity with 187 coronavirus patients occupying ICU beds.
Ohio reported more than 25,721 cases, an impressive increase. However, officials said approximately 13,000 of these were backlogged cases from November.
Ohio reported 657 new hospitalizations and 81 new COVID-19 deaths since Monday.
