health

A health expert from The Medical Center in Bowling Green says the suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine won’t be crippling to Kentucky’s vaccination efforts. 

Kentucky has received few shipments of the one-doses vaccine, but the commonwealth is joining all other states and temporarily suspending use of the vaccine to investigate potentially dangerous blood clots. 

Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been distributed mostly to Kentucky’s independent pharmacies and the correctional system.  Dr. Melinda Joyce, VP for Corporate Support Services for Med Center Health, says the mass vaccination clinic run by the Medical Center has received none of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and doesn’t plan to in the future.

"What I am concerned about though is whether this will increase the vaccine hesitancy we’ve seen," Dr. Joyce told WKU Public Radio.

For eight months, Hoosiers had to wear masks in public.

That changed last Tuesday when Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb allowed his statewide mask mandate to expire. But several Southern Indiana restaurant owners plan to continue their own in-house mask requirements.

“I think we’ve got a little bit more time before that’s something I’m comfortable with with my staff, especially being in a restaurant where people have to take their masks off to dine and it’s boisterous,” said Dallas McGarity, owner of the Portage House in Jeffersonville.

Restaurant owners are allowed to implement such restrictions under Holcomb’s executive order, and McGarity isn’t the only one doing so. But it’s still a decision he expects to garner some criticism from local residents.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced that the state’s positivity rate is the highest it’s been in approximately a month — 3.16%.

“We’ve got to be watching that. We should be wary,” Beshear said. “We should see what’s going on in other states. We should get everyone out to get vaccinated.”

Beshear said the state is likely seeing a plateau in new cases and hospitalizations. In the past, he said, the state has typically seen an increase in cases following a plateau. This time, however, Beshear hopes the COVID vaccine will make a difference.

On Monday, Beshear announced the state will lift most COVID restrictions on venues with capacities of less than 1,000 once 2.5 million Kentuckians are vaccinated. Already more than 1.5 million Kentuckians have received at least one shot of a COVID vaccine.

More than 1.5 million Kentuckians have so far received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but when it comes to fully vaccinated individuals, rates vary greatly among the state's 120 counties, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Apr. 8, Kentucky had fully vaccinated 20.6% of its total population, slightly higher than the national rate of 19.9%.  Only eight Kentucky counties had fully vaccinated at least a quarter of their total populations. 

People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and two weeks after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

CDC figures released on Thursday show Woodford County has the highest rate of fully vaccinated residents in Kentucky at 31.3%, followed by Fayette and Pike counties at 28.7% and 28.5%, respectively.  Rounding out the top ten most vaccinated counties are Franklin, Perry, Letcher, Floyd, Hancock, Nicholas, and Lyon.

New cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky have plateaued following 12 weeks of declining cases, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. 

Infections are on the rise around the country, particularly in parts of the midwest including Michigan and South Dakota, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The seven-day average of new cases in Kentucky also increased slightly last week while test positivity rates, a leading indicator of where infection rates are headed, have remained fairly steady over the last three weeks, Beshear said. 

At the same time, Kentucky is continuing to see a growing number of infections related to a more transmissible variant of the virus known as B.1.1.7, which health experts say is likely to become the dominant version of COVID-19 in the U.S.