LEXINGTON, Ky. — Demand for COVID-19 vaccines is plummeting in Kentucky. Now, two large vaccination sites in Lexington will close soon: Kentucky Horse Park and the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field location.
What You Need To Know
- University of Kentucky's Kroger Field vaccine will soon close, turning the facility back into a football stadium
- Kentucky Horse Park will administer its last dose on May 8
- UK Healthcare will continue vaccinating students and patients at other locations
Officials announced they’re planning to close the Kroger Field mass vaccination site and are in the process of demobilizing.
“We've gone from more than 4,000 a day on a full day to 1,000 or even under 1,000 frankly this week,” said Jay Blanton, a spokesperson for the University of Kentucky. “So it's just reaching a point where we don't need that level of infrastructure, that level of staff and number of staff to support that kind of operation.”
Blanton says it’s due to declining demand for the vaccine.
On Tuesday, the university briefed its Board of Trustees on the upcoming changes.
“In the context of that presentation, he briefly gave them an update that we are in the process of thinking about what we would call the demobilization, some might call it closure, of the mass vaccination clinic at Kroger Field,” Blanton said.
They’re now redirecting their efforts.
“That doesn't mean we're going to stop vaccinating we're just going to redeploy those efforts to UK Healthcare sites and we're working through that process,” Blanton said.
Since it opened in January, the site has vaccinated close to 125,000 people and administered 240,000 doses and counting.
With the mass vaccine site winding down, Blanton said the stadium will soon return to its purpose.
“Yeah, we haven't used it for that (for football) and we have practice facilities with the football team, but it'll go back to being a football stadium,” Blanton said. “Now obviously we can always flex if we need to do something in athletics has been a terrific partner along with UK Healthcare and this entire process, but it'll go back to its original intent.”
He said there's no time line yet on when the clinic at Kroger Field will close, but more details will come out later this week.
Another mass vaccination site is also expected to close. The state-operated site at Kentucky Horse Park will close this weekend. It opened in February.
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services said the last vaccine doses will be administered on May 8 at the Horse Park. The vaccines will now be shifted to Kroger stores and other providers.
UK said community testing for COVID-19 will continue at Kroger Field until June.