 Friday, December 11, 2020
Top COVID-19 Takeaways from the Week
COVID-19 vaccine distribution to take multi-tiered approach
 News of a COVID-19 vaccine is trending up, and public health officials in Louisville illustrated the planning and distribution process.
Dr. SaraBeth Hartlage, Associate Medical Director with Metro Health and Wellness said guidance begins at the federal level which sets people into broad categories. A vaccine allocation group at the state level then places a priority on groups such as frontline workers and those working in critical infrastructure.
"It's a multi-tiered approach to make sure we get all the right people into the right groups," she said. "In critical infrastructure here in Kentucky, we're placing an emphasis on EMS workers, healthcare providers and educators, and at the local level, we help coordinate those groups."
Paul Kern, Public Health Preparedness Administrator and Coordinator of Mass Vaccination Planning said the department is using principles from large-scale vaccination events such as H1N1 and the 2017 Hepatitis A outbreak to prepare for COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Furthermore, Kern said a portion the first allocation of a COVID vaccine will go to the three health care systems in Louisville, University of Louisville Hospital, Baptist Health and Norton Healthcare for essential frontline healthcare workers. The remainder of the allocation will go to Walgreens and CVS pharmacy to address high-risk groups in long-term care facilities.
For information on Kentucky's COVID-19 vaccine planning CLICK HERE.
Grim milestone hits Jefferson County,
 Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage, Associate Medical Director for the Louisville Department of Public Health and Wellness
On Tuesday, Dr. Hartlage reported Louisville surpassing 4,000 weekly cases, as Louisville's daily incidence rate of COVID-19 positive cases increased to 74.6 cases per 100,000, more than three times the critical incidence rate threshold of 25 cases.
With the Thanksgiving holiday in the rearview mirror, city officials anticipate a spike in COVID-19 cases as with previous holiday events such as Halloween and Fourth of July.
Citing the short time period, Dr. Hartlage stated it is too soon to determine whether residents gathered in large groups despite the increase in cases in the past week. She added added that the health department will continue to monitor the situation closely over the coming week when they can make a more educated assessment.
"There are a few small clusters that we can attribute to family gatherings and we have continued to see a rise in cases and that could be a contributing factor."
Watch this week's COVID-19 update with Dr. Hartlage HERE. To see Louisville’s COVID-19 data dashboard, including total number of cases, deaths, testing locations and more, click HERE.
Metro Health quarantine and isolation guidelines align with Centers for Disease Control
 Louisville Department of Public Health and Wellness updated quarantine and isolation guidelines.
Public health officials recognize the challenge with quarantine and isolation procedures with residents and the stress it can place on health care systems in our community.
The Centers for Disease Control announced options to reduce quarantine and the Louisville Department of Metro Health and Wellness updated its guidelines to align with them recognizing that a reduction in the quarantine length may encourage people to adhere to the guidelines.
While new guidelines provide options to reduce quarantine, Metro Health and Wellness strongly recommends a quarantine period of 14 days.
New Guideline Options include ending quarantine:
- On day 7 after a negative test result is received on day 5 or later
- On day 10 if no test performed and no symptoms of COVID-19 develop
- The health department states everyone should continue to monitor symptoms for 14 days regardless of COVID-19 test results.
Additionally if you have symptoms immediately self-isolate and contact your healthcare provider. We also encourage people not to wait for us to call them, but to call our COVID-19 LOU HEALTH Helpline at 502-912-8598 to:
- Know what your next steps are
- Learn how to safely isolate at home
- Alert your contacts
- Assist with any essential needs you may have.
Don't hesitate, call the helpline! If LOU HEALTH appears on your caller ID, answer the call.
For more information on COVID-19 resources, click HERE. For information on how to identify close contacts and safely isolate or quarantine at home, click HERE.
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