| Louisville Courier Journal
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Flooded with orders for COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 70 and over, all three Louisville hospital systems were forced to suspend new appointments – just three days after they started scheduling them.
In the meantime, the waiting list for people seeking consultations has grown to about 40,000 since Friday, said Jason Smith, medical director at the University of Louisville Health, in a press call on Monday.
Smith said that demand for the vaccine is simply exceeding supply.
“It will take a while to reach everyone,” said Smith.
He said the area’s three main hospital systems – U of L, Baptist Health and Norton Healthcare – are trying to accommodate people on the waiting list administered by the Louisville health department.
Smith said the three systems are splitting names on the waiting list and will contact people as limited vaccine supplies become available.
“We are trying to open new appointments every week, depending on what our vaccine stock is,” said Smith. “The supply of the vaccine has been quite variable. We can receive 1,000 doses in one week and three or four thousand in the next week.”
Your questions answered: When can I get the COVID-19 vaccine in Kentucky?
People who fail to get an appointment are encouraged to keep trying.
Jim Kinsman, 85, a retired investment manager in Louisville, said he tried and failed to get appointments at all three hospitals for him and his wife, 86 – an experience he said was highly frustrating.
“Getting online and having these sites saying ‘come back later’ seems so inefficient,” he said. “It’s like going online and trying to get tickets to a show.”
Smith asked people to continue trying to make appointments through the U of L Health website and not to try to call the University Hospital.
“Don’t mind,” he said, adding that U of L is receiving “thousands of calls” about the vaccine.
Vaccine supplies for states are designated by the federal government, and Smith said it is unclear how much is available or whether supplies are running low, as some national reports have said.
Governor Andy Beshear announced earlier this month that he wanted to speed up the pace of vaccinations in Kentucky by focusing on those most at risk and school personnel in order to get elementary school children back to face-to-face classes. .
All three Louisville hospital systems announced on Friday that they would start offering vaccines to people over 70, in addition to vaccinating their own healthcare professionals. They were quickly overwhelmed with orders.
The Norton website reports that, because of the high demand, “schedules are currently closed”. Spokeswoman Maggie Roetker said Norton will add more consultations as more vaccine becomes available and asked people to continue checking the site.
Bottom: Norton, U of L, Baptist distributes vaccines to people aged 70 and over
The Baptist website also reports that there are no hours available in Louisville. Baptist spokeswoman Julie Garrison said the hospital was “flooded” with requests and hopes to be able to offer more consultations soon.
Smith said UofL hopes to offer more consultations in the coming weeks, but that the fluctuating supply of vaccine authorized by the federal government makes it impossible to provide details on when people can expect it.
“Ideally, we would have enough vaccine to give thousands and thousands of doses a day, and that is not the reality of what we are seeing with regard to the distribution of the vaccine,” he said.
Beshear announced earlier this month that anyone 70 years of age or older would be eligible for the vaccine in Phase 1B of the state guidelines for dispensing limited doses, along with early respondents, such as police and fire, and school officials.
The first doses in Phase 1A are being administered to frontline health professionals, residents and nursing home staff.
Those aged 70 and over are prioritized for the vaccine because they are at the highest risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.
Kentucky has about 500,000 people aged 70 and over, according to the state’s Office of Health and Family Services.
Smith said he is not blaming the government.
“In general, they did a good job of sending to the states, and the states did a great job of sending to the hospitals,” said Smith.
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Biden: current launch of the vaccine ‘a gloomy failure’
President-elect Joe Biden called the current implementation of the coronavirus vaccine “a grim failure”, while highlighting his $ 1.9 trillion plan to fight the pandemic and provide additional relief. (January 15)
AP
But President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration’s effort to distribute the vaccine as a failure and said his goal is for Americans to receive 100 million injections of COVID-19 in the first 100 days of his administration.
To do this, Biden is committed to adding clinics, strengthening the public health workforce and invoking a wartime production law to ensure adequate vaccine supplies.
So far, about 10.6 million Americans have received the first dose of the double injection required for both vaccines by manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer / BioNtech approved for emergency use.
In Kentucky, which has a population of about 4.4 million, 213,567 doses of the vaccine were administered as of Monday, according to the state’s COVID-19 website.
Kinsman said he wants someone at the state or local level to design a system in which people can book appointments as soon as they are available, instead of listening to keep trying.
“Maybe they could do something to make things a little easier for us,” he said. “I wonder if I have a place in the queue.”
For now, people who want to make an appointment for the vaccine can continue trying to do so through the three hospital websites.
People aged 70 and over who already have an online patient record through Norton will receive a direct message that will allow them to schedule a vaccine appointment. Others can visit nortonhealthcare.com/campaigns/covid-19-vaccine-tier1b or call 502-861-4499 to schedule.
To schedule a vaccination appointment through U of L Health, go to uoflhealth.org/louisville-covid-19-vaccinations.
Baptist Health has an online registration portal at baptisthealth.com/vaccine/schedule-now.
Latest numbers: Less than 2,000 coronavirus cases reported Monday
Talk to Deborah Yetter at [email protected] or 502-582-4228. Find her on Twitter at @d_yetter.