FRANKFORT, Ky. — Governor Andy Beshear, state health officials, and Kroger leadership announced a new partnership to increase the speed of COVID-19 vaccinations across the commonwealth.
What You Need To Know
- Kroger has partnered with Team Kentucky to ramp up the state's vaccine rollout
- Across the commonwealth, Kroger will open drive-through vaccination sites the week of Feb. 1
- The number and location of the regional vaccination sites will be announced Jan. 28
- The effort is expected to greatly increase Kentucky's vaccine expediency
The first Kroger regional, drive-through vaccination sites will open the week of Feb. 1 for Kentuckians in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C. The week before, Beshear said more details would be announced on site locations and the sign-up process.
“This is a very exciting announcement that’s going to help us truly do more and do better with vaccinations,” Beshear said.
Beshear announced that Transportation Secretary Jim Gray has also been named director of the Vaccine Distribution Project. Vaccinations have already begun for K-12 school personnel through individual school districts and will continue to ramp up over the next few weeks.
The governor said the state expects to finish administering initial vaccination doses over the next few weeks. He expects for K-12 educators and support staff to have their initial doses done the week of Feb. 1.
Beshear urged Kentuckians to be patient as vaccine allocations from the federal government aren’t enough to cover everyone in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C who wants to be vaccinated.
“We can build any infrastructure, but how quickly and how many people we can vaccinate depends on how much the federal government gives to us,” Beshear said.
324,650 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been received in Kentucky and 172,537 doses have been administered. Of the doses administered, 28,977 have been given to long-term care facility residents and staff.
The state's partnership with Kroger was announced during Thursday's COVID-19 briefing, where Beshear also shared the state's updated case and death count.
As of 4pm Thursday, Jan. 14, the Governor’s Office reported the following COVID-19 numbers:
- New cases today: 4,084
- New deaths today: 51
- Positivity rate: 12.34%
- Total deaths: 3,042
- Currently hospitalized: 1,661
- Currently in ICU: 409
- Currently on ventilator: 196
Top counties with the most positive cases Thursday are: Jefferson, Kenton, Boone, Oldham, and Fayette. Each of these counties reported 170 or more new cases. Jefferson county alone reported 642.