COVID-19 in Kentucky, Indiana: Tracking cases, deaths, restrictions, vaccines – WLKY Louisville

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to love Axe. The team here is just continuing to do an outstanding job accommodating the makeup appointments necessary to get caught up after the closures last week from the snowstorm. It’s hard to believe that was all a week ago, but that’s all we were talking about all the time. But here we are with different weather, so welcome to the Ohio Valley. This Luvox side continues to be recognized as one of the most efficient operations in the whole country. So we’re just really proud of our public health team and all the volunteers that have made that happen in our entire medical community. We’re just doing wonderful work as a team here to fight this dastardly virus. This is a week of mixed feelings as a nation tragic, tragic, tragic milestone of 500,000 people. A half million people passed from Covid 19 this past week, and it’s hard to put your head around that, especially when we think back about a year ago, you know, we were hearing about the virus, but little did we know how much tragedy would leave in its wake, and the magnitude of these losses really is hard to process behind each and every one of them. Everybody knows somebody has been affected by covid right now, but just the the emotion and the sadness is really, really tough. So it’s why we want to keep doing our job. If you can’t get a vaccine. Where a mask right? Everybody can wear a mask and wear a mask even after you get the vaccine. So that’s the sad part. As a community here, too, we’re we will be approaching. I’m sorry to say, 1000 deaths in the next several weeks, so that’s a bad milestone for us as well Here with that backdrop, of course, it’s a really hopeful time. Vaccine supplies are increasing if they’re going to teach, cases are falling. We’re glad to see that, because for months they just kept going up and up, and now for over a month, they’ve been going down in a very significant way. But we can’t let our guard down. We can’t let our mass down yet because we’ve got a long way to go. But we do have real reason for hope and optimism that the next 12 months are going to be very different and much brighter than the last 12 months. And obviously these lifesaving vaccines are a big reason why. I do know that there are still some people in our community who still feel some hesitation about getting that vaccine. That’s not so much of an issue right now when demand exceeds supply. But in probably six weeks or so 6 to 8 weeks, supply is going to increase demand. So that’s when we really have got to be already have addressed the people that are vaccine hesitant or vaccine skeptical. I want to make sure that everybody understands that this vaccine is safe. The testing process involved 70,000 people. More than 45 million people in our country alone have received the vaccine to date and over 110,000 in our city. I’ve received it. You might have a little sore arm. Your legs might be a little shaky after the second dose, but it’s nothing that an aspirin and a good night’s sleep doesn’t take care of for most people. And believe me, it’s much better to have those symptoms than it is to get covid. So by taking the vaccine and with all this working together at Luvox and throughout our hospital system, and pharmacies and clinics were getting closer to herd immunity. That’s really our goal here as a city and a state and as a country, because then maybe we’ll be able to take our mask off and hug our friends and our parents and go to your favorite restaurant. We’ll go to the favorite concert, whatever it is. But people keep just want to say, Man, it’s gonna be great when we can get back to normal. So this is a big part of making that happen now. Another big step, as the governor has announced, starting next week, March the first, we’re going to open up appointments for vaccinations to people 60 and over. So a lot of folks have been asking about that, so that’s a big milestone. The beginning on Monday, individuals 60 and older can begin scheduling their appointments to get vaccinated through our various vaccine providers. So this is outstanding news for the community. We want to get as many shots as many arms as quickly and efficiently as we can now here to give us more information on the next stage of vaccinations. Let’s welcome our associate medical director and co chair of our vaccine distribution task force, Dr Sarah Beth Hart. Lige. Doctor cartilage. Thank you, Mayor. As you mentioned, we’ve made tremendous progress toward vaccinating our community. Together, we have completed phase one A of healthcare workers and long term care facilities and gone a long way toward completing Phase one B, which includes first responders, educators and all adults over the age of 70. The waitlist, for appointments for those over the age of 70 is nearing its completion, which is to say that everyone has been offered an appointment. Um, I’m proud to say that we are now ready to make the next step and move into Phase one C. This is potentially a very large group measured in the hundreds of thousands rather than tens. And while our vaccine supply is increasing and we expect it to continue to do so, the vaccine remains a precious resource. The Vaccine Distribution task force has, in communication with our cohorts at the state level, decided to place an emphasis within phase one C on adults over the age of 60. This decision in no way is intended to diminish the contributions of our essential workforce or the very real need to vaccinate patients with underlying medical conditions. These groups are very important, and we will seek to include them as quickly as we can based on supply. But we know from experience that the greatest burden of severe disease, hospitalization and death occurs in the group of adults over the age of 60. We expect that placing this emphasis will really save many lives. Beginning on Monday, March the first, any adult over the age of 60 will be eligible to schedule an appointment for a covid vaccine with a local provider. Please remember that the schedule is and likely will remain very full. Your appointment, maybe a few weeks from now, you may spend some time on a wait list. We ask for your patience as we are committed to delivering vaccines as quickly as the supply allows. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Alexis. We’ve got a big group behind us here today, and they are members of our vaccine distribution task force. So we started this bill probably six or seven weeks ago. This is Bill Altman back here. Bill is the co chair of the task force along with Dr Hart. Lige. We wanted to bring all of the members of our community together from our scientific community, our business community and our health care community so that we could all figure out together. How can we defeat this virus as quickly as possible? This group kind of was an extension of our testing task force as well. And I can tell you in talking to other mayors around the country, one of our secret weapons in terms of defeating the virus, is the teamwork of this outstanding group we have behind us here. Sometimes, you know you have competitors. You’d say this hospital system might be a competitor with another hospital system or this business or that business. None of that has really manifested itself in both testing in our vaccine processes as well. So you’ll be hearing from a few of them in a moment there, available to the media as well afterwards. If you all want to speak with any of them, Dr. John Klein is here. Dr. Klein, of course, is famous because he is the doctor in the weekly. The doctor is in, uh, program. So, Dr Klein, it’s so good to see you in person. Thank you. for being with us here. Let’s hear it for Dr John Klein. Yeah. All right. I’ll pay for that later. Okay, Um, so, Luvox, outstanding partnership with the state and federal government. Because, remember, that’s how we’re getting the vaccines, right? Federal goes to ST State, comes down to the local level, and then we’ve got to work with our community partners, pharmacies, clinics and local hospital systems to get this done. So we’re working with them to set up multiple avenues for people over 60 to make their vaccination appointments. This has been a long held desire to get people over 60. So we have nine options for making an appointment. So to tell us more about how these will work and about their own vaccination efforts, I’m gonna welcome several of our community partners that are members of our vaccine task force. So first up is Dr Chuck Anderson, vice president and chief medical officer of Baptist Health. Chuck. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for being here. Are Thanks for asking us. Yes. We’ve been very happy working with all the other hospital systems in the city. Uh, we are opening up our website. Uh, schedule your vaccine dot com next week on the first, also Monday and we’ll be expanding. I’m happy to announce that we’re opening our drive through today and there will be expanding next week as well. So that’s our main effort right now is expanding from the website and getting more vaccines to get them into more arms. So thank you. Mhm U of L. Health, of course, is a really integral partner with these efforts. Dr Jason Smith or chief medical officer, is with us here today and he’s been at the front of a lot of our conversations here on the on this virus for a long time. So Dr Jason Smith, thank you all. So you have a health is going to continue our efforts. As far as the vaccination is concerned, we are going to start opening up. Are the majority of our appointments on Thursday mornings for the new 60 and over group. We’ll have them out by about 8 a.m. on Thursdays for the upcoming week as well as continuing to have kind of a rolling appointments. As things open up, we’re going to continue to work with our church partnerships throughout the community to help bring some of the vaccine into the other areas and neighborhoods within the community. We will be at first Yosemite Church this weekend. We’re going to continue to work with Emmanuel Baptist Church, as well as many of the other churches moving forward in the upcoming weeks. Um, that effort will continue. If you need to get into our appointments, we’ll have appointments at South. We’re gonna have appointments at our Brooke and Liberty location, which is drive through. We will also have appointments at marrying Elizabeth. And if you’re out in Shelby County, will have some at Shelbyville Hospital. Uh, beginning next week, you can get on those appointments by getting on u of l health dot org. If you’d like to be one of our community partners, please, you can get on your overall health dot org as well, and there will be a list and sign up to ask if you want to be part of our partnership to get out into the community from the church standpoint. And I want to thank all those partners for letting us use some of their multi use facilities to help set up some of the vaccine drives and vaccine events that we’ve been doing. It’s been a great outreach for us, and it’s been a lot of smiles and happiness throughout the community being able to do that. So thank you, thank you, Dr Smith. And of course, he alluded to, um, health going into the community, we’re getting really outstanding results, working with some of our community partners and particularly some of our black churches, and we’ll just find that we’ve got to reach out in many different ways. So where are people most comfortable receiving the vaccine? So the equitable distribution of this vaccine is really important to us? Uh, black and brown communities have borne a disproportionate pain from health care in the past, so we’re determined to make sure that they’re getting vaccinated at proportionate level. So going into the community right now is a big part of that. That’s going to change a lot when supply comes on. It’s going to not be that uncommon for that to be taking place. But I’m very appreciative and thankful of our healthcare partners or hospital systems for moving into the community and partnering with so many of our organizations. Norton Healthcare Systems has been a big part of that as well. That effort and, of course, vaccinating at all of their locations. So next, I’d like to welcome Dr Steve Hester, chief medical officer of Norton Healthcare. Steve. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, really excited to be here today, you know, especially considering Dr Hartley had mentioned that the 60 plus age group was certainly feeling the effects of this pandemic horribly for the past year. So it’s great to move into this category. Uh, we’ll be providing. You know, we’ve been continuing to provide the vaccine in the community. We have four fixed locations spread across the community. Uh, as Dr Smith had said, we’re doing working with churches, going into the community and trying to have a special uh huh having individuals go to that list and creating a queue. As individuals put their name on that list and spots become available, we’ll send them back and individualized link that will allow them to schedule appointments. People are in the queue is they’ve gone through. So what that allows to is to continue to build that we expect to be adding appointments over the next month. Uh, and then certainly has increased supply becomes available. We’ll do the same. So really excited about this as well, Working with Lou Vax as appointments at Luvox become available and they have capacity will also be sharing some of that list, as we did with the 70 plus. So some patients who you know go onto that list may find themselves getting a link to come to Luvox for that appointment. The goal is to get everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible. So thanks for sharing the message and appreciate your help. Okay? And they are federally qualified health care centers or fq. Hcs are big part of our vaccination efforts as well, so to speak, on their behalf. And and then Bill Wagner are gonna be coming up from our fq hcs in the community. I’m on it. Good morning. And thank you, Mayor, uh, with me this morning, I’ve asked an Hagen Grigsby who’s the CEO part of all community Health Center to join me. Um, currently, the federally qualified health centers in Louisville have four vaccination sites. The family health centers have three sites that are Portland fairytale in these Broadway location. Part of all is providing vaccine at their main site on Wilson Avenue in the part of our neighborhood. Each year, our health centers provide care to about 10,000 persons, uh, age 60 and older, and a majority are racial and ethnic minorities. Our patients live in medically underserved neighborhoods where the residents are most at risk for covid transmissions and most at risk of dying from the virus. And our primary goal is to ensure that the most vulnerable in our communities have equal access to the vaccine, as the mayor has indicated, because of the limited supply of vaccine to our health centers. At the present time, we will focus on serving our patients first in the regular health centers that they’re familiar with, where they go for their regular medical care. Uh, we will not have online scheduling portals that you’ve heard described by the hospital systems, but whether rather, we will reach out to our patients, all of them by telephone, Norton Healthcare and soon to be with Baptist, where they can help our patients obtain appointments at their sites. So we’re committed to making vaccine more accessible to everyone, especially those that are most risk in our community. And as more vaccine becomes available, we will be opening up more of our sites, the vaccine clinics and to opening up our sites to the general public. So thank you very much. Thanks. Okay. To close this out will be Bill Altman. As I mentioned, Bill is the co chair of the Vaccine Distribution Task Force, and he’s going to give a description of kind of what the task force does and how we’re not only dealing with the issues of today but the issues as we look down the road as well. Bill, you and the team are doing a great job. Thanks very much. Mhm. Thanks, Mayor and I just want to start by thanking all the members of the task force who spend all their time working to bring vaccinations to the community. Basically, the task force is comprised of a combination of health care providers, many of whom you’ve heard of from today to who are in a position to bring vaccines to the community medical experts, science advisors, employer groups represented at the table, because that’s a really important partner in our vaccination efforts, community health centers and others. And basically, we meet every week and figure out how we are going to bring vaccines to the community, um, in an efficient way and an inequitable way. So we look at the data, we look at distribution mechanisms. We look at the supply coming from the state and spend our time figuring out how we’re gonna efficiently bring vaccines to the community. So you know, we’ll continue doing that. As the mayor said, and others have indicated, we expect vaccine supply to increase in the coming weeks. So it’s our job to make sure that we have the capacity to deliver whatever vaccines come our way. And that’s the essential focus of the task force. So we look forward to the supply increasing and focusing our efforts on bringing those vaccines to the community. Thank you, thank you, Bill. And we’re also the communications subgroup as well. Of course, is important all the time, but it’s really important right now to make sure we’re getting the right messengers to write messages to groups that might be a little vaccine skeptical or vaccine, hesitant to make sure they get the information. So when it’s their turn, uh, to get the shot, they will feel comfortable about doing so. All right, so I think my third final speaker. I think I’ve said I’ve had final Speaker here twice. Is Doctor Cartilage is going to come back to the podium and share some information about the new appointment system system we have in the latest data on our vaccination totals here at Luvox. Doctor Cartilage. Mhm. So Luvox will be focusing on the 60 plus group along with our other providers. We will be offering appointments from off of Norton’s wait list. We have developed a good partnership with them along the 70 plus group and expect to continue that as well. I’m going to close by, uh, delivering our weekly data updates. So for, um, through close of business yesterday on Thursday, uh, across the metro area, we have delivered a total of 167,973 covid vaccines. That includes 110,789 primaries or first doses and 57,091 boosters or second doses. So approximately 18% of our community has received their first dose, and approximately 9% has received both. Mhm um, here at Luvox, our total number is 40,911 with 27,849. Primaries 13,062 boosters. Um, we also like to recognize our volunteers during this period every week. Uh oh. As of today, we have 6120 registered volunteers who have given a total of 39,590 hours on site. And I hope the volunteers behind me can hear me when I say that I think their labor is priceless. But there is a multiplier that is used for these things. And this week, the economic impact of our volunteer labor across the $1 million mark and is now, um $1,076,848. Okay, as you know, um, after our volunteers serve 40 hours on site with us, they become eligible for vaccination. And to date, we have vaccinated 523 of our volunteers. Choosing volunteers of the week is a challenge every week because they are all fantastic. But I do have a few here with me today. Um, first, I have so be a Farooq who’s been here, and, um, been an extremely flexible volunteer who’s worked in all three of our zones and been willing to take on any job that’s been asked of her. Thank you, Sophia. I have Allison Solan who always signs up to work the first shift in the morning and then, uh, doesn’t go home and stays here until the end of the day. She works in the pharmacy station where she’s given us over 100 of her hours. Um, most of our volunteers are here to serve the public and to take care of patients, but it takes a very special volunteer to care for other volunteers. So, um, those who work in the volunteer reception area are among our most popular folks and representing them today. I have Pedro Valente. Um, I have two more who are not here with me today, but I’m going to share, um, anyway Megan Shelter and Laura Bohn, whose supervisor in Zone three stated that they have This is a direct quote, a high degree of dislike for cold weather, but a high degree of joy that makes it fun to work even when the weather is bad. And then, uh, we also can’t function without the service of a large number of Metro employees. We have about 40 on site with us here every day. Uh, many of them are here on a rotational basis. They come and go. And, um, this one is rotating back to her quote unquote real job next week. So we’ll be sad to see her. Hope she comes back someday. But, um, Tony Rice has helped us implement a number of, um, new innovations here at Luvox. Whenever we have. Whenever anyone has had an idea, can we try this? Um, we try something out on the floor, and Tony has been the person to track the metrics to see if it was actually a good idea or not. Um, so thanks to Tony Rice for her service, and that’s all I have for this week. Thank you. Yeah, you. I want to just again commend everybody here and also call out our nurses that we celebrate every week. Day. Eleanor Manson, the president. The nurses association with you. Thank you for inspiring so much many of your team. They’re always showing up and helping out here. Really appreciate the good work that you do. And your colleague Dr Ruth Kericho over here. Who’s helping in so many ways as well. So let’s give it up for our nurses and everything that they’re doing for us. All right? With that, we’re happy to take any questions over. Yeah. So the question is, how many people do we estimate over 70 or remaining? And how will we take care of them? I don’t know, Doc. If you have, they will always have priority. As we get into the other phases, they continue to be eligible. Everyone who was on the wait list has been offered an appointment. I’m not sure. A couple of weeks out there, there were scheduling a couple of weeks out into the future, so, um, they may not have actually gotten their vaccine yet, but they should at least be on a schedule somewhere if they have gotten on the list. Um, but just because we’re moving to 60 on Monday doesn’t mean that seventy’s not still eligible to jump in there. As well as you may know, is a single shot vaccine. It also has much less stringent, um, handling requirements. It’s a lot less delicate than these m RNA vaccines. And so, uh, we are very excited to be able to hopefully deploy that into the community in, um, for example, transient housing, hopefully into our homeless communities. Things like that. Um, I expect to see the health department received some of the Janssen vaccine and that we will be deploying that into the community. Um, those conversations are ongoing to determine the quantity. Uh, but we expect to receive some hopefully before the end of March. So the question is about essential workers, and you’re exactly right. That that is a very large group. Sort of depends on how you define them. And, um, which way you slice it. But, um, we have an employer subgroup on the vaccine distribution task force and, uh, in communication with them as well as the, um, task force at large. Uh, there will have to be some kind of organization to get through those people in an efficient manner. We look forward to partnering with some of our large employers, uh, to get their staffs vaccinated. Um, but that is not yet clear what that privatization will be. This is, um we estimate that there are at least 100,000 people in the 60 plus group. And so, um, I would expect it based on our current supply that it would take us, um, at least 5 to 6 weeks to move through that, um, hopefully we can exceed that estimate. We’ve exceeded every other estimates so far in this project, but, um, I think it would be reasonable to guess at least a month to be able to get through that group. All right, I also want to recognize Dr Sarah Moyer over here. Of course. She’s the director of public health and wellness department, our chief health strategist. So you are very familiar with Dr Moyer. Thank you. Okay, so we’re kind of in the changing landscape right now is we’ve seen, you know, the tragic milestone of half a million passed in our country versus the hope of the vaccine, and then a lot more vaccine coming, and then a lot more vaccine that’s going to be more flexible with its storage capacity, specifically the Janssen vaccine and maybe some other progress as well. Steve, is that right? Do you want to comment on that? Taking some chances? No. With the lower storage. Oh, sure. So I think one of the things Mayor was referring to was it does look like the FDA did make some recommendations on changing the fighter storage recommendations, which were ultra cold freezers. It would allow it to be stored in normal freezers, which does allow some changes in terms of how you process that, as well as how you get it out in the community. So I think it may offer some opportunity for us. Certainly we’re waiting on to see those full recommendations, but I think as a community that allows us to look at using some different sites and certainly as we’ve been going into churches, uh, potentially using that vaccine in those facilities as well.