FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday announced four new regional COVID-19 vaccination sites will open in Bowling Green, Covington, Glasgow and Murray next week.
Dr. Steven Stack also said district and county health departments will receive increased, steady amounts of doses based on population served.
“This is our continued commitment to ensure that you don’t have to drive more than one county away to get your vaccine,” Beshear said. “We’re not there yet, but we are working on it.”
The new regional vaccine sites are:
- Northern Kentucky Convention Center (Kroger Health site)
- Greenwood Mall, former Sears location (Kroger Health site)
- Murray State University CFSB Center
- TJ Regional Health, T.J. Health Pavilion
During Thursday’s briefing, Dr. Stack announced for the next three weeks, every district health department and county health department will receive a vaccine allocation equivalent to 1% of the population of each county they serve, rounded to the nearest 100, with a minimum allocation of 100 doses per county.
Doses will be used to vaccinate the 70+ age group, which is currently the prioritized group of Kentuckians.
“For a three week period, for Feb 8, 15, and 22, they are going to receive a stable supply of vaccine in order to do specific community outreach in their community areas,” Stack said.
Beshear also said the federal government will ship out one million vaccine doses nationwide to Walgreens branches and independent, local pharmacies in the coming weeks. Stack said Kentucky will receive approximately 13,000 doses for around 80 to 100 Walgreens stores and 40 to 50 local pharmacies.
The key challenge Kentucky is running into isn’t the capacity. Beshear said that if they can get more vaccines in, they can get them to people.
“We are making progress and be assured. If they drop 200,000 doses on us tomorrow we are ready to get those out,” said Beshear. "Our challenge is supply."