Kentucky has an extra 500,000 vaccine doses as COVID-19 case numbers tick upward

Gov. Andy Beshear announced 713 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Friday, along with 15 more virus-related deaths, lifting the total number of confirmed cases to 436,445 and raising the death toll to 6,317.

As the weekly case total is on track to surpass last week’s, Beshear emphasized the surplus of available vaccine doses across the commonwealth and again pleaded with people to sign up.

“There are more than half a million Moderna and Pfizer vaccines available in Kentucky right now, and it just takes a few minutes to find yours,” he said in a written update Friday. A full list of vaccination sites can be found at vaccinemap.ky.gov.

Close to 37 percent of Kentucky’s adult population has received at least one dose of the vaccine — 1,638,235 people, 15,311 of whom got their first dose in the last day, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. At least 2.5 million people must be partially immunized before Beshear has said he will rescind coronavirus capacity, curfew and social distancing restrictions at businesses and venues that serve fewer than a thousand people.

The statewide rate of Kentuckians testing positive, on the rise for seven consecutive days, hit 3.51 percent by the work week’s end.

There are 418 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (two more than Thursday), including 94 in intensive care (eight fewer people) and 42 on a ventilator (seven fewer). Five of the deaths announced Friday were previously uncounted COVID-19 deaths discovered through the state’s audit of Kentuckians who have died from coronavirus.