FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Starting Monday, all Kentuckians 40 and older will be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Kentucky is currently in phase 1C of vaccinations, which includes all essential workers and also all residents 50 and older.
The governor has previously said that every Kentuckian 16 and older should be eligible to get a vaccine starting by April 12.
COVID-19 Update
During his Thursday press conference, Gov. Beshear announced that 726 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Kentucky. After the removal of duplicates, the 726 new cases brings Kentucky's COVID-19 case total to 423,414.
"That is the smallest Thursday we've had in at least a month," Gov. Beshear noted.
Kentucky's positivity rate is up slightly, but still below 3%. Thursday's positivity rate was 2.92%.
Gov. Beshear also announced 19 new coronavirus-related deaths, along with an additional 88 coronavirus-related deaths due to an audit, bringing Kentucky's coronavirus-related death total to 5,970.
"This pushes us beyond the original 604 we announces because we were being proactive," Gov. Beshear said of the additional deaths added due to the audit. "These are cases that have not come up from the local health departments I believe because they were still missing documentation and they were missing documentation that would be needed to qualify them as a COVID death when we pull the death certificate and looked at that information."
As of Thursday, 403 Kentuckians are hospitalized for coronavirus-related reasons, 106 of which are in the ICU, and 49 of which are on ventilators. At least 49,349 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.
