FRANKFORT, Ky. — For the fourth straight week, Kentucky has seen new COVID-19 cases and test positivity rate decline, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday.
"Remember, it's fragile. We let our guard down, everything changes. There are variants out there that appear to spread more aggressively. We're moving in the right direction, we've just got to keep it up," the governor said.
Beshear reported 1,003 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily case count since Dec. 26. The governor also announced 40 new deaths. Because of Kentucky's process to determine if a death is caused by coronavirus, some of Monday's reported deaths occurred in January and one carried over from December, Beshear said.
Since March, 378,793 Kentuckians have tested positive for COVID-19 and 4,091 have died of the virus. The state's test positivity rate has fallen to 7.78%, the lowest rate seen since Nov. 10.
Hospitalizations declined again on Monday: 1,163 Kentuckians are currently hospitalized for COVID-19, with 274 people in intensive care units and 142 on ventilators. Kentucky's coronavirus fatality rate has risen slightly to 1.07%.
Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 3,278 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 32,085 people have recovered from the virus as of Monday. Since the pandemic began, 235 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.
Convention Center vaccination site opens Thursday
A regional COVID-19 vaccination site is coming to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center on Thursday. The Kroger Health site at 1 W. Rivercenter Blvd. in Covington will run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays starting Feb. 11. Officials hope to administer 2,000 doses per week.
You must have an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and you can schedule online now atwww.kroger.com/covidvaccine or at www.kycovid19.ky.gov, or by phone at (866) 211-5320. You will also be able to schedule a second booster dose appointment at the same location, Beshear said.
To learn if you're eligible to receive a vaccine now, visitvaccine.ky.gov or call Kentucky's vaccine hotline, (855) 598-2246, active 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
St. Elizabeth, HealthPoint and NKY Health are also administering vaccines to those in phase 1B in Northern Kentucky, though all appointments are filled at this time.
Kentucky will run six vaccine hubs: two in Paducah and one in Murray, Glasgow and Danville. Another Kroger vaccine hub is running now in Lexington, and one in Bowling Green is coming this week.
MORE: Where to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine in the Tri-State
Through the week of Feb. 22, NKY Health and all Kentucky health departments will be allocated a "stable supply of vaccine," according to Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack.
Each department will receive doses equivalent to 1% of the population served, with a minimum of 100 doses allocated per county. Second doses will ship to those county health departments four weeks later. Officials said 90% of doses must be administered within the week, given to Kentuckians 70 and older.
Beshear said the federal government will ship a limited supply of vaccines to Walgreens and independent pharmacies in Kentucky, and locations receiving vaccines will be announced Thursday. Northern Kentucky Health has also listed 13 local Walgreens pharmacies where these vaccines will be available to people age 70 and older here. Independent pharmacies will be added to the list once registration information is available.
Since vaccines arrived in Kentucky in December, more than 490,000 Kentuckians have received at least one vaccine dose, roughly 10% of the state population. According to data presented Monday, the vast majority of those vaccinated so far are 70 and older, more than 60% are female and the vast majority are white.
With 4.3% of vaccines administered to non-white Kentuckians, Beshear said he wants to see that number move closer to 8%, which would be proportionate to Kentucky's minority population.
Watch a replay of the briefing in the player below:
