LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- UK HealthCare received 1,950 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which were among nearly 12,000 doses available in this week’s initial rollout for Kentucky’s health care workers.
"After 10 months of being on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are excited for the good news that a vaccine is now available and that we can offer it to some of our health care workers at UK HealthCare," said Dr. Mark Newman, UK executive vice president for health affairs. "We will be providing the first vaccinations to our front-line employees who have direct patient care primarily for COVID-19 patients or under investigation for COVID-19. While we know that we have a long way to go in ending this pandemic, we are grateful to be part of this momentous first step."
Some Kentucky hospital started administering the vaccine Monday. It's a day later, but the excitement is still there.
"We're very excited," Newman said. "I described it as this is the beginning to the end, we think of COVID, and we are excited to start the vaccine process."
Despite receiving nearly 2,000 doses, only 88 frontline health care workers got vaccinated on Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, the amount of time it took, the vaccine came in at negative 80 or negative 70 state," said Dr. Philip Almeter, chief pharmacist at UK Healthcare. "So, we had to thaw so much of it. We only scheduled so many for the first day, because we want to be careful and learn from each vaccination. We want to make sure we're doing it the right way."
After a slow start Tuesday, the plan is to vaccinate more than 500 people over the next two days.
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