The boosters are needed to address waning immunity as a result of the highly contagious delta variant. For now, it will apply only to the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
In Kentucky, all residents of long-term care facilities are also eligible to get a Moderna or Pfizer booster shot, the state health commissioner announced.
The Republican from Marion, who represents a portion of Christian County, sponsors the bill that would bar state and local governments from requiring “the wearing of any type of facial covering on any public school premises.”
Part of the challenge in understanding long COVID is that many of the symptoms, like fatigue and brain fog, can stem from a variety of conditions — which can make it difficult to determine a direct line between cause and effect.
The measure keeps universal masking in place for up to 270 days, although it can be withdrawn if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Kentucky Department for Public Health relaxes recommendations for schools.
In a virtual press conference Thursday, doctors and hospital leaders with Baptist Health Paducah and Mercy Health-Lourdes Hospital described packed emergency rooms, with doctors having to decide who gets treated expediently and who waits for hours.
As health care workers grapple with the pandemic’s most recent wave, a few things are clear: patients hospitalized with COVID are getting sick quicker, are younger than before and are mostly unvaccinated.
Superintendent Steve Miracle said he made the decision to not discipline students following a Wednesday morning meeting with concerned parents at the school district’s board of education office.
