'We're Gonna Need Everybody to Take This Vaccine': Gov. Beshear on COVID-19

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear provided several updates in the state's fight against COVID-19 on Tuesday.

The Governor touched on several topics like widespread vaccination in addition to the extension of several of his COVID-19 Executive Orders.

According to Gov. Beshear, widespread vaccination will be the key to the state's victory in the battle against COVID-19.

"This is how we're gonna defeat COVID. We're gonna need everybody to take this vaccine," Gov. Beshear said. "We're gonna need you to have patience. It's the hardest test of patience we're gonna face in our lifetime."

While the governor hopes for Kentuckians to receive the vaccine with open arms, he's asking them to be patient due to the current short supply.

"The reason we need you to have patience is we don't have that much vaccine compared to our population," he continued. "It's gonna take time to get enough to open it up to everyone."

According to Gov. Beshear, the Bluegrass State will have received a combined total of 202,650 allocations of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of December, being a combination of 99,450 Pfizer doses and 103,200 Moderna doses.

Then, for the week of Jan. 4, Gov. Beshear said the state would receive another allocation of 53,700 doses - in a mixture of 27,300 Pfizer doses and 26,400 Moderna doses, with a majority of those Pfizer doses being distributed to long-term care facilities (by CVS/Walgreens), and the majority of the Moderna doses being distributed to more frontline healthcare workers.

According to Gov. Beshear, as of Tuesday, Walgreens had administered vaccines to 1,009 long-term care residents/staff, and CVS had administered 501.

Gov. Beshear's COVID-19 Executive Orders

In addition to those updates on the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Beshear announced the extension of several COVID-19 Executive Orders Tuesday.

1.) Gov. Beshear on Tuesday signed an Executive Order renewing his statewide mask mandate.

The mask mandate's extension will take effect on Jan. 2, 2021, as of 5:00 p.m. and will last for an additional 30 days.

"This more than anything else is gonna decide how many people live and how many people die," Gov. Beshear said.

2.) Additionally, Gov. Beshear renewed the Executive Order allowing pharmacists in Kentucky to dispense emergency refills of up to a 30-day supply of non-scheduled medications for residents of the Commonwealth.

That extension goes into effect on Jan. 4, 2021, and will last for an additional 30 days.

3.) Gov. Beshear signed an Executive Order to extend Kentucky's moratorium on evictions to match the CDC's.

That order is effective now through Jan. 31, 2021.

For information on new COVID-19 cases and deaths from the Kentucky Department for Public Health, click here.

You can also watch Gov. Beshear's full Tuesday COVID-19 update below:

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