Governor Andy Beshear reported at his press conference Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a request from Pfizer to allow individuals as young as 16 to get a Pfizer booster shot. He said the next step is to wait for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to approve. Like adults, 16- and 17-year-olds would need to wait six months after getting their second vaccine dose before getting a booster.
“This is great news, especially after the update this week on the effectiveness of the booster. Pfizer released preliminary data that suggests a booster provides a strong defense against the delta variant, which is still enemy No. 1 here in Kentucky,” said Gov. Beshear. “The data also shows a booster appears to provide real protection against the omicron variant.”
Kentucky’s COVID-19 indicators have continued to increase making vaccinations and boosters even more important: the week ending Dec. 5, the average test positivity rate was 9.02% and 15,875 new cases were reported.
The Governor said earlier this week that more than 10,000 Kentuckians got their booster shot. In addition, 61% of all Kentuckians have gotten at least their first vaccine dose.
As of Thursday, 664,339 Kentuckians have had a vaccination booster, approximately 15% of the population.
Beshear signs Executive Order addressing state nursing shortage
Beshear said even before the pandemic hit, nursing shortages were a problem, and now, the situation is dire.
“This threatens not only the health of patients, but the entire health care delivery system,” said Gov. Beshear. “We’ve got to do things a little bit differently to make sure we get the results we need at the time that we need them the most.”
Kentucky is currently operating at 12%-20% short of needed nursing staff, and the state is projected to need more than 16,000 additional nurses by 2024.
In response, Beshear signed an executive order declaring that Kentucky’s nursing shortage in the midst of a deadly global pandemic is an emergency.
Through this order, Kentucky nursing schools will be able to enroll more students. The order will require the Kentucky Board of Nursing to approve requests for enrollment increases for schools that show sufficient resources to handle more students.
The order also requires schools to report vacant student seats to the Board of Nursing every month. The Board will post those vacancies on its website. This will allow schools without vacancies to refer applicants to schools with programs that have open seats.
Under this order, nursing schools in the next month will send a list of faculty needed to reach full enrollment to the Board of Nursing, the Governor’s Office, and the Council on Postsecondary Education.
Also under this order: Existing schools that want to open new campuses can do so much more quickly, as long as they have sufficient resources. Under this order, a new campus will be considered an enrollment increase to an existing program, which offers significant savings of time and money. Schools that want to open new campuses alone or as a joint venture can take advantage of this important provision.
The order also allows nurses licensed in other states to come to Kentucky to practice in this emergency. Further, it creates the Team Kentucky Nursing Advisory Committee, which will be composed of individuals with experience in education, health care and nursing, to propose additional solutions for addressing Kentucky’s nursing shortage.
“I want to thank the Governor for listening to the voices of nurses,” said Kelly Jenkins, executive director of the Kentucky Board of Nursing. “We’ve been working diligently to place these emergency orders into effect since the pandemic started and to try to recruit more nurses from other states. We thank the Governor for working with us.”