The first doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine arrived at hospitals in Kentucky on Monday and healthcare 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 around 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 more than 223,000 cases and 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 healthcare workers were injected with the vaccine.
The first batch of the vaccine in Kentucky includes more than 12,000 doses that shipped to hospitals around 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.”
Healthcare 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-frozen temperatures, the first of nearly three million doses made their way by truck and by plane around the country Sunday from Pfizer’s Michigan factory.
The Associated Press
