Governor’s coronavirus press conference

With vaccines finally being administered across the state, Governor Ricketts updates the community on our fight against COVID-19.

This event was previously live-streamed and has since ended.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN)- The Governor will be speaking live at 10 a.m., tune in for the latest updates on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Nebraska.

Today, Governor Pete Ricketts announced, as of 9 a.m., 1,746 Nebraskans have received the Pfizer vaccine. The state will receive all 15,600 anticipated doses by the end of the day.

Preparing for Phase One B, 17 Nebraska National Guardsmen have been recruited to help gather population information.

“We’re going to be calling talking to businesses, I’ll give you an example for a trucking company. We really want to focus on the truck drivers and the mechanics to keep the trucks rolling,” explained Gov. Ricketts. “So, if you are a trucking company and somebody from the National Guard calls you and says, ‘Hey, we’re just calling to see how many truck drivers mechanics you have,’ please respond back that helps us get an idea of how many people will be in those categories, as we do our planning for phase one B.”

However, Nebraska will not be receiving another shipment of the Pfizer vaccine next week. It is unclear what has caused the delay.

When asked if he was concerned about the delay, Gov. Ricketts said that it does impact their original vaccine distribution plan.

“Things are gonna change, so we’re going to be flexible with regard to that. If Pfizer continues to ramp up production, we should be able to catch up with this again and still hit that schedule where our general public is getting this [the Pfizer vaccine] in April.”

But, if Moderna is authorized for emergency use by Friday, we will be receiving the 32,400 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine next week.

In addition to the vaccine distribution plan, Gov. Ricketts took the time to touch on blood donations in Nebraska by welcoming an American Red Cross spokesperson to the podium.

The spokesperson said the pandemic has not “diminished the need for donated blood. Yet, unfortunately, it has caused the cancellation of many blood drives here in Nebraska.”

More than 1,300 blood drives have been canceled in 2020, leading to a projected loss of about 35,000We have seen the cancellation of more than 1300 blood drives, leading to the projected loss of approximately, 35,000 units of collected blood.

Although, Nebraska is currently “holding our own” in terms of blood donations, there is a blood shortage nationally.

“The issue here is that these donations, typically, are only good for about 40 to 42 days,” comments the spokesperson. “Here in Nebraska alone, we go through hundreds of units a day for the 90 hospitals in which we supply blood. So there’s a constant need that never abates.”