Commonwealth’s largest COVID vaccination site opens in Louisville

LOUISVILLE,KY (WAVE) - The largest regional vaccination site in Kentucky is now open in Louisville. After a week of setup and volunteer training the Cardinal Stadium’s Purple Lot is open and working to vaccinate more people.

When will everyone get back to normal or close to it? That is the question many of us have been asking for more than a year. Monday, Kentuckians got an answer.

On opening day of the Cardinal Stadium site, Governor Andy Beshear said loud and clear if 2.5 million Kentuckians get vaccinated he will lift most of the state’s restrictions. That would mean no more curfews for bars, wedding venues, concert halls or event space, the capacity restrictions gone, for up to 1,000 people and six feet of social distancing removed. However you’ll have to keep your masks handy.

The whole idea behind opening Cardinal Stadium as a mass vaccination center is to go big or go home or in this case with the pandemic, stay home and inside. The site has 28 lanes and will get people in and vaccinated within 10 minutes. It can vaccinate about 24,000 thousand people a week, for up to seven weeks. The Cardinals may be in their off season but Beshear said the community still needs to cheer team Kentucky to victory.

“We’re here at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville ready to open the most ambitious vaccination operation to date,” Beshear said. “This is just the next step, even though it’s a big step in a successful rollout in the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.”

Recent University of Louisville graduate Emma Lynn Rakestraw said she had COVID-19 last year. She rolled into Cardinal Stadium Monday because she never wants to experience it again.

“Excited to get back to our normal that we had before,” Rakestraw said. “And ready for people to start healing from this experience.”

John Metcalf, who received the vaccine Monday, said he’s personally seen the impacts of the virus.

“I’ve had friends and family that have both had it,” Metcalf said. “Some of them with pretty severe reaction to getting hospitalized with COVID. So, I thought it was important to get the vaccine.”

Beshear said there’s now a vaccine clinic is every local community, but this site is now the largest. It will give about 200,000 vaccinations overall.

Anyone 16 or older can sign up to get their COVID-19 vaccine at Cardinal Stadium.

Copyright 2021 WAVE 3 News. All rights reserved.