LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The first doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine arrived at hospitals in Kentucky on Monday and health care workers in Louisville were the first to receive injections.
A shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires two doses, arrived at University of Louisville Hospital about 9:40 a.m. in a UPS delivery truck.
Gov. Andy Beshear was at the loading dock to welcome the shipment. Beshear said he has been waiting for this day since the pandemic reached Kentucky in early March. Since then, the state has reported nearly 225,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,200 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
“Let us celebrate that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Beshear said at a news conference after the first five health care workers were injected with the vaccine.
The first batch of the vaccine in Kentucky includes more than 12,000 doses that shipped to hospitals across the state for their high-risk workers.
Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor, who has worked in a COVID-19 unit at UofL Health since March, was one of the first to receive the vaccine Monday morning. She said she recently lost her 27th patient to the virus.
“I want to get back to seeing my family,” Briones-Pryor said. “I want families to be able to get back to seeing their loved ones.”
Health care workers are first in line for the vaccine, but about 25,000 doses from the first shipment are headed to CVS and other pharmacies to begin vaccinating people in long-term care facilities. Beshear said he hopes to have the entire long-term care population vaccinated within two months.
Packed in dry ice to stay at ultra-cold temperatures, the first of nearly 3 million doses made their way by truck and by plane across the country Sunday from Pfizer’s Michigan factory.
Also on Monday, Kentucky restaurants and bars were allowed to reopen indoor seating at 50% capacity after a governor’s order halted in-person dining last month. Beshear had ordered the restriction after a spike in cases.
He said that measure, along with closing elementary, middle and high schools to in-person instruction, has helped slow the rise in cases. Beshear said last week was the first since mid-October that the state saw a week-to-week decline in new cases.
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