FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky officials learned Thursday that about 1,000 Ohioans had scheduled appointments at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center through Saturday.
Gov. Andy Beshear said that error has since been fixed, and the state will require patients to provide their ZIP code when scheduling an appointment. Regardless, Ohioans who showed up at the Convention Center for a vaccine received one Thursday.
“They’re people, too, and they can spread (coronavirus) across their river,” Beshear said.
Kroger provided a statement to WCPO on this "aberrant scheduling event," which read in part:
"In an effort do the right thing for those customers, we worked quickly with the Department of Public Health and Governor Beshear’s office to self-report the issue, and greatly appreciate their guidance and cooperation in allowing those vaccinations to continue as scheduled. We have reached out to everyone who was turned away to reschedule their vaccination appointments. This aberration has been resolved and will not reoccur.”
The governor said he will ask the federal government to send doses to replace doses given to Ohioans.
Starting next week, Kentucky will host 410 COVID-19 vaccination sites statewide, adding 119 sites. Locally, those new sites include two Kroger locations in Florence, one in Erlanger and a regional vaccine hub in Grant County.
Since December, Kentucky has administered more than 715,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Kentucky recorded 1,447 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, as well as 43 virus-related deaths, including a 95-year-old man from Boone County and a 95-year-old woman from Kenton County.
Since March, 401,750 Kentuckians have tested positive for COVID-19 and 4,570 have died of the virus. The state's test positivity rate is 5.67%. Beshear said last week's lower case counts were due in part to severe winter weather preventing more testing.
Hospitalizations have been on the decline for several weeks. Currently, 843 Kentuckians are hospitalized for COVID-19, with 220 people in intensive care units and 122 on ventilators. Kentucky's coronavirus fatality rate has risen to 1.12%.
Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 1,429 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 36,396 people have recovered from the virus as of Thursday. Since the pandemic began, 259 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.
Watch a replay of the briefing in the viewer below:
