LEXINGTON, Ky. — More than half of Kentucky's acute care hospitals — 50 of 96 — are reporting critical staffing shortages in trying to deal with the raging coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday.
Beshear delivered the grim news during a news conference in Frankfort to announce the third and final winner of $1 million and five winners of higher education scholarships in a statewide incentive program to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Democratic governor started the news conference with news about the plight of Kentucky hospitals. He said the state delivered two additional ventilators to T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow when the hospital ran out of them.
"This shows you the level of seriousness," he said.
Beshear said steps have been taken to help hospitals. They include deployment of the Kentucky National Guard to three to five hospitals, beginning Sept. 1; a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a 100-member nurse strike team and an EMS strike team to operate five life-support ambulances in addition to 30 federal personnel that already are in Louisville, Prestonsburg and Somerset; and taking over COVID-19 testing at some of the hardest-hit hospitals to free up clinicians.
For example, five clinicians at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead have been freed up to staff more beds, he said.
He warned that Kentuckians are at risk of finding an overcrowded hospital if they need emergency care for such events as heart attacks and car accidents.
Kentucky COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased every day without exception for the past 43 days, from 239 people on July 14 to a record 2,115 people on Aug. 26., said Beshear.
Before the delta variant, Kentucky's record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations was 1,817 on Dec. 17.
On July 14, there were 60 Kentuckians in the ICU for COVID-19; as of Thursday, said Beshear, there were 590.
On July 14, there were 25 Kentuckians with COVID-19 on a ventilator; as of Thursday, there were 345. He also noted that the state's positivity rate has jumped from 3.81% on July 14 to 13.24% on Thursday.
The "better" news, Beshear said, was announcing the winner of the "Shot at a Million" incentive program. The final winner was Mary Mattingly of Louisville. She was traveling in South Dakota when Beshear told her the news.
The winner said she was honored, grateful and overwhelmed. She stressed the importance of getting the vaccine.
"We offered this drawing as a way to encourage everyone to get one of the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines," said Beshear. "The response we've had for this sweepstakes has been great, But even with this drawing and other incentives, we urgently need more folks to get vaccinated. The delta variant of COVID-19 is burning through our population in every corner of the commonwealth."
Beshear said 419,566 Kentuckians have been vaccinated since he announced the incentive program in June. He acknowledged that fear of contracting COVID-19 also has increased the number of vaccines. So far, about 2.5 million Kentuckians have been vaccinated.
Beshear was thankful to the incentive program winners "for doing the right thing" by getting vaccinated. The final drawing was conducted Thursday, randomly selecting one adult Kentuckian for the $1 million prize and five youth to receive full-ride scholarships to a Kentucky public college, university, technical or trade school.
The five people selected for full scholarships are Marissa Herron of Mount Washington, Lillie Nielsen of Nicholasville, Jordan Ballard of Crestwood, Grider Burch of Lexington and Jaden Wattley of Louisville.
Wattley's father, Jamar Wattley, is a front-line registered nurse. Beshear gave him a copy of a proclamation honoring health care workers.
Beshear said he hopes local efforts will continue to urge people to get the vaccine. He predicted that more businesses and entities will require the vaccine as the virus spreads.
