When he volunteered to be the first Med Center Health employee to take the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 on Monday, Dr. William Moss couldn’t help but think of his late colleague Dr. Rebecca Shadowen, who lost her life to the virus in September.

If the vaccine had been ready for distribution at that time, Moss said, “it would have been her in my seat.”

“She was a pioneer in this area, in this community and helped so many people,” Moss said of Shadowen, an infectious disease specialist with Med Center Health who regularly urged the public to take COVID-19 seriously.

Shadowen contracted the respiratory disease in May and died after her own lengthy battle against it. She was 62.

Before the first health care workers at The Medical Center marked a new chapter of healing amid a pandemic that has claimed more than 300,000 lives in the U.S., Moss said the group took a moment of silence to pause and reflect.

“We just had a moment to think to ourselves what we’ve gone through and those we’ve lost and, hopefully, of better days ahead,” said Moss, who directs The Medical Center’s Emergency Department.

On Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear reported 2,946 new positive virus cases statewide, characterizing the development as a sign that his virus restrictions have worked to slow the spread of a disease that’s killed more than 2,239 Kentuckians. Tuesday’s total of new coronavirus cases was lower than the number of new cases reported on the same day a week before (3,114) and the week before that (4,151).

Beshear also said Tuesday the state’s positivity rate is at 8.53% – slightly lower than Monday’s rate and a continuing decline from Friday, when the rate dropped below 9%. Experts consider the virus to be under control when the positivity rate is at 5% or lower.

Warren County was among the top counties in the state for new positive cases Tuesday. Beshear reported 123 new cases here.

On Tuesday, the Barren River District Health Department announced a total of 16,533 cases since the pandemic started, 13,633 of which have recovered. There have been 196 deaths reported from COVID-19 in the department’s eight-county region.

The breakdown of recovered/deaths/total cases by county is Barren: 2,039, 30, 2,342; Butler: 579, 16, 717; Edmonson: 417, 13, 498; Hart: 937, 8, 1,143; Logan: 1,227, 37, 1,479; Metcalfe: 411, 5, 526; Simpson: 745, 9, 1,010; and Warren: 7,278, 78, 8,818.

In Allen County, the local health department there reported 22 new coronavirus cases.

Allen County has had 933 cases reported since the start of the outbreak, the department said. Currently, 814 cases have fully recovered and are off quarantine with 101 active cases in quarantine at this time either at home or hospitalized. The death toll in Allen County is 17.

Statewide, another 15 Kentuckians have died of the disease, Beshear said Tuesday.

Still, the governor welcomed news that an additional seven hospitals across the state received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and he said tens of thousands of Moderna vaccine doses could arrive in Kentucky as early as next week.

“The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are absolute game-changers with 94-95% effectiveness and, it appears, minimal side effects,” Beshear said in a news release. “It gives us a view and a vision and a certainty of victory against this virus. We’ve just got to stay vigilant between now and when everybody can get it.”

At The Medical Center, which received 975 initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine Monday, health care workers who could be exposed to COVID-19 as part of their jobs are receiving the shots, which are administered in two doses several weeks apart in order to reach fully vaccination.

By noon Tuesday, Med Center Health expected to administer more than 100 shots to its employees, and it plans to give all 975 doses by Sunday, a Med Center Health spokeswoman said.

Moss said he has “great confidence” in the vaccine, and he urged the public to consume information about it from reputable sources – not social media. Of the 70,000 people who took the vaccine in a clinical trial, Moss said, none reported serious adverse side effects.

“I requested to be first because I wanted to show my confidence in this” vaccine, Moss said, calling the scientific work behind getting a vaccine in record time “science at its best.”

At the Cal Turner Rehab and Specialty Care Center in Allen County, long-term care residents and staff were also beginning to receive the vaccine Tuesday. The facility is looking at giving the vaccine to about 100 of its residents and staff members, said Eric Hagan, Med Center Health’s vice president of rural hospitals, who oversees the facility.

Although the center has experienced nowhere near as serious of an outbreak as the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center just outside Lexington – where the death toll climbed to 33 on Tuesday – Hagan said the arrival of a vaccine is eagerly anticipated among its residents and staff.

“People are living with this 24-7,” Hagan said. “The vaccine helps with peace of mind.”

– Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @NewsByAaron or visit bgdailynews.com.