Doctors push for more vaccinations ahead of 100% reopening of businesses, events

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - More than 600,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University placed the total COVID-19 death toll at more than three million, according to a report released last month.

However, confirmed COVID cases in the nation have fallen to levels not seen since March 2020.

Looking ahead to the City of Louisville reopening its businesses and events to 100% capacity, doctors are encouraging unvaccinated people to get the shot.

In the Metro as of last week, there were 391 confirmed COVID cases and nine deaths reported. Additionally, the city’s COVID dashboard revealed that fewer than half of the area’s residents had received the full COVID-19 vaccine.

Louisville health leaders like Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor with UofL Health said it’s important for those who haven’t been vaccinated to consider taking the vaccine for the sake of their community.

“At Jewish today they only had five patients and that includes what was in the ICU, and within our health system we are way under 20,” Briones-Pryor said. “There’s reason to all of this. We didn’t shut down the city because we thought it was fun, we did it because we wanted to save lives and now the next step is let’s get vaccinated so we can continue to live a normal life.”

Briones-Pryor noted that doctors are more often seeing positive cases among patients ages 40 to 60.

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