BESHEAR: First COVID-19 vaccines expected to arrive in Kentucky in mid-December

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The first COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Kentucky in mid-December.

The news was announced by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in his Monday evening news conference.

"We believe that we are going to get our first allocation of Pfizer vaccines as early as mid-December," Beshear said. "This will all depend on when it gets initial approval, and then the shipping occurs. We believe that we can get first allocation of the Moderna vaccine as early as two weeks after when we get Pfizer vaccines."

Calling the vaccines "miracles," Beshear said the initial shipment of Pfizer vaccines would be "very limited," at 38,025 doses. Beshear added that 76,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected two weeks later.

He said CVS and Walgreens would distribute those doses to long-term care residents and staff as well as to frontline COVID-19 health workers.

State leaders said of the initial Pfizer shipment 26,000 doses will go to long-term care facilities, and 12,000 will go to frontline workers.

"Sixty-six percent of our deaths in Kentucky have been nursing home residents," said Dr. Steven Stack with the Kentucky Department for Public Health. "Additionally, nursing home residents go to hospitals usually before they pass away, and our high-intensity health care users. So, this is where hospitals get overrun."

Beshear said this week the state is preparing to get its first shipment of the temperature sensitive vaccine, Pfizer, by doing a practice run with a mock kit.

"This is only a test to make sure that the logistical part of us getting vaccines from the federal government upon ordering them is going to work, and work smoothly," he said.

The governor cited national studies showing that the Moderna vaccine is 94% effective overall but 100% effective when it comes to severe cases.

"We can put this entire pandemic in the past," Beshear said. "Think about that. After all that we have been though, after all that we have lost, and all of the people that we are going to miss, we have a chance to beat this thing, and to render it into something that can't harm anybody else ever again."