LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The first week of a public COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Kroger Field has concluded, with approximately 10,000 vaccines administered in a five day period.
UK HealthCare kicked off the clinic on Tuesday with the goal of vaccinating around 240 people every hour.
“We’re exceeding our expectations of what we originally planned. We originally said about 2,000 a day. We’re hitting from 2,200 to 2,500 a day,” said UK Chief of Police Joe Monroe.
On Jan. 15, UK HealthCare published a vaccine request link to allow anyone in the public seeking a COVID-19 vaccine to register to receive one. The form adds applicants to a database, which then sorts them to determine who is eligible to receive the vaccine based on the state’s current distribution plan.
A link to schedule an appointment is emailed to those who are eligible.
Priority is given to healthcare workers, essential workers and those over the age of 70.
On Wednesday, volunteers at Kroger Field experienced their busiest day. 2,560 Pfizer vaccines were administered on that day.
The state allocated an estimated 10,000 vaccines to the clinic at Kroger Field, according to Monroe. This is the main limitation to how many people can be vaccinated weekly at the clinic.
“We are really trying to vaccinate as many people as the state will give us doses for,” he said.
Monroe added they are reviewing the successes and failures of the first week to determine if any adjustments need to be made for the upcoming week.
“Every day we’re looking at how we can make it better,” he said.
The clinic operates by appointments only from Tuesday to Saturday.
