Baptist Health Corbin employees receive first doses of COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19 vaccinations are now underway for employees at Baptist Health Corbin, which was one of the first 11 hospital in Kentucky to receive the vaccine and administer the first shipments of the vaccine.

Baptist Health Corbin CEO Anthony Powers gives the thumbs up as he prepared to get his COVID-19 vaccination Wednesday morning.

“Our first group of employees to receive doses of a vaccine to protect against the COVID-19 (virus) included members of the housekeeping staff, physicians, nurses, our chief medical officer, our chief nursing officer, president and a patient educator,” Baptist Health Corbin officials said in a new release.

High-risk healthcare workers

Baptist Health Corbin Chief Nursing Officer Sherry Mays gets her COVID-19 vaccination Tuesday.

were given first priority for the first shipment of 975 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that arrived in an UPS delivery truck at the hospital’s loading dock at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

“We know the vaccine is vitally important to getting back to normal, and we are thankful to be a part of this effort to eradicate COVID-19. We stand ready to play a key role in this

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine must be stored at an extremely low temperature.

crucial initiative as we begin vaccinating our front-line health workers and our community as more supplies of vaccine become available over the next several months,” said Baptist Health Corbin President Anthony Powers.

In total, Kentucky is expected to receive 38,025 COVID-19 vaccine doses in the first round of shipments from the federal government. These doses are all for the initial vaccine; booster shots will be delivered approximately three weeks later. Both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines require an initial dose and a booster dose.

The Moderna vaccine will have its hearing on Thursday. If emergency use authorization is granted, thousands of additional Moderna vaccine doses will be available, and assigned by the ACIP and CDC to be given to a certain classification of high-risk individuals.

Four Baptist Health hospitals in Kentucky — Louisville, Lexington, Corbin, and Madisonville —  were chosen to receive the initial shipments of vaccine. Baptist Health Floyd has been selected to distribute the vaccine to frontline healthcare workers in three counties (Floyd, Harrison and Washington counties) by the Indiana State Department of Health.

Baptist Health, the state’s largest health system, has prepared to vaccinate front-line healthcare workers in all of its facilities by investing system-wide in freezers and other special equipment, training and devoting thousands of man-hours on vaccine planning.

About Baptist Health Corbin

Baptist Health Corbin is a 273-bed, acute care facility providing a wide variety of healthcare services to the residents of Whitley, Knox, Laurel, Bell, Clay, McCreary, Harlan and Campbell counties in Kentucky and nearby Jellico, Tennessee.

Part of Louisville, Kentucky-based Baptist Health, the hospital offers 24 points of care in a full continuum from inpatient care to rehab services to behavioral health. Services include cardiac, orthopedics, a full range of women’s services, including obstetrics and breast care; wound care, pain management, cancer care, and diabetic treatments.

Formerly known as the Baptist Regional Medical Center, the hospital includes outpatient diagnostic, occupational medicine and physical therapy clinics. Baptist Health has a network of healthcare providers for patients in the Southeast Kentucky area – from Baptist Health Medical Group offices, to Baptist Health Urgent Care and Baptist Health Express Care inside Walmart.