First week of Tier 1B appointments completely booked; how to schedule a future appointment

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - The COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Louisville expanded to tier 1B Monday.

All members of the general public are not allowed to get the shot just yet, but some new groups are now eligible.

Those include educators, critical utility workers, nonmedical first responders and corrections staff.

Those people will begin to roll up their sleeves and head to the mass vaccination site at Broadbent Arena.

Adults over age 70 are also now eligible to get the shot in Louisville. Area hospitals, including UofL , Norton and Baptist Health, will be administering the majority of those vaccinations.

Metro Health officials said Monday all appointments across town were already booked up in relation to the number of vaccine doses distributed to Louisville hospitals this week.

“Ideally, we’d have enough vaccine to be doing thousands and thousands of doses per day,” Dr. Jason Smith, with UofL Health, said. “That’s just not the reality of what we’re seeing as far as vaccine distribution.”

Smith said it took less than an hour for all appointments to be filled last week at UofL Health.

The public can sign up to be on the city’s vaccine interest list. It will alert people when new appointments are available for sign up, but it does not guarantee an appointment. 

“All of the health care systems are trying to open up new appointments every week,” Smith said. “So, it will be a bit of a rolling weekly appointment type thing as we open up.”

A Metro health spokesperson said, for now, people’s best bet is to continue to check the sign up section of hospital websites. 

“Usually, around Thursday is when we understand what our vaccine allocations are going to be,” Smith said. “So, being on the website and looking around Thursday will be helpful when we open up appointment times.”

Tier 1B includes a larger number of people. So, it may take longer to complete than tier 1A.

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