FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — During his Wednesday press conference, Gov. Andy Beshear announced that all Kentuckians that are 16 or older will be eligible to get vaccinated starting on Monday. All Kentuckians that are 16 or older will be eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine while all Kentuckians 18 and older will be able to receive Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
"This is a good day. It means we will beat the president's request by a month to have it opened up to everyone," Gov. Beshear said.
Gov. Beshear said this decision was made due to a number of states, such as Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and New Jersey, seeing an increase in cases and hospitalizations among younger people.
"We are seeing more younger Americans ending up in the hospital, we believe is because of the more aggressive variants. We want to get ahead of them. We are also seeing some appointments open, we want to make sure that we fill those," Gov. Beshear said.
New vaccination site
A new vaccination site will be opening at Cardinal Stadium on April 12. It will be the largest vaccination site in Kentucky.
University of Louisville professionals will be able to vaccinate up to 4,000 Kentuckians per day at the Cardinal Stadium site. It will be open to all Kentuckians ages 16 and up. For more information or to make an appointment, visit uoflhealth.org or call 502-681-1435.
COVID-19 update
There were 815 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Kentucky on Wednesday. After the removal of duplicates, the 815 new cases of COVID-19 brings Kentucky's COVID-19 case total to 426,876.
"That is more than last week but less than the week before that and the week before that," Gov. Beshear noted of the new cases.
Kentucky's positivity rate continues to remain under 3%. Wednesday's positivity rate was 2.96%.
There were also 22 new coronavirus-related deaths announced, bringing Kentucky's coronavirus-related death total to 6,090.
As of Wednesday, 413 Kentuckians are hospitalized for coronavirus-related reasons, 110 of which are in the ICU and 48 of which are on a ventilator. At least 49,678 Kentuckians have recovered from COVID-19.
