Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday reported 3,057 new COVID-19 cases, along with 28 additional deaths, warning Kentuckians to take care in how they celebrate the holidays this year, or else they risk spreading the coronavirus to their families.

“We are seeing a stabilization here that is protecting the lives of our people and we want to make sure that we continue to plateau or even decrease cases as we move toward this vaccine,” Beshear said Tuesday during his live coronavirus briefing from Frankfort. “How we do this Christmas and New Year’s, those celebrations, it’s going to be so critical to protecting as many Kentuckians as possible until we can get this vaccine disseminated. So, I’m asking every Kentuckian, please, keep it small.”

Although Tuesday’s case totals and new deaths were still high, Beshear said the state is tracking under its performance on those metrics compared to last week.

Kentucky’s positivity rate was also down slightly Tuesday, falling to 8.48%.

On the vaccine distribution front, Beshear said he had both good and bad news. For the bad news, the state’s second shipment of the Moderna vaccine – expected to arrive next week – will include roughly 12,000 fewer doses than initially anticipated. However, Beshear said the state got confirmation from Pfizer of a third shipment of 34,125 vaccine doses, which is up from the second shipment arriving this week.

Between the two drugmakers, Kentucky should get 202,650 initial doses of the vaccine by year’s end, Beshear said. There have been 8,839 vaccine doses administered in the state as of Tuesday. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses for recipients to reach immunity.

At the Thomson Hood Veterans Center just outside Lexington – where 34 residents have been killed by the coronavirus – 90 veterans and more than 100 staff were receiving their first doses of the vaccine Tuesday.

“This is a facility where we kept COVID out until mid-October, and then it took 34 of our veterans who sacrificed for our country,” Beshear said, calling the vaccinations there a “very special thing to see.”

Earlier Tuesday, Beshear publicly received the coronavirus vaccine along with a handful of state government leaders. Asked by a reporter about that decision, Beshear said he and every other state governor had been asked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to receive the vaccine in that way in order to inspire confidence in it.

Beshear, whose wife also got the shot, said he didn’t experience any serious side effects from the initial dose, adding “All is well.”

“This is safe. It is a Christmas miracle for us,” Beshear said.

Reacting to a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress late Monday and forwarded to President Donald Trump’s desk, Beshear was optimistic about what it means for the state budget proposal he’ll make in January.

“There’s not direct budgetary relief, but from everything I’ve seen this is a package that’s going to help us and help us significantly,” Beshear said, adding “I believe our budget is going to be in good shape” next year and able to provide additional state relief to Kentuckians.

Beshear estimated that Kentuckians will get more than $2 billion in direct checks as a result of the bill’s enactment. There is also $250 million to $300 million for eviction relief, Beshear added.

That said, local governments are still on the hook with no budgetary relief for them included in the measure.

“Other areas that will be hit: corrections – especially jails and all the extra expenses that they’ve incurred. Another round of CARES Act funding could be very helpful there,” he said.

Locally, Beshear said there were 136 new cases in Warren County.

The Barren River District Health Department announced a total of 17,715 cases since the pandemic started, 14,697 of which have recovered. The department’s eight-county region has 196 deaths reported from COVID-19.

The breakdown recovered/deaths/total cases by county is Barren: 2,148, 30, 2,482; Butler: 635, 16, 764; Edmonson: 450, 13, 527; Hart: 998, 8, 1,209; Logan: 1,334, 37, 1,595; Metcalfe: 458, 5, 551; Simpson: 845, 9, 1,107 and Warren: 7,829, 78, 9,480.

In Allen County, the local health department there reported 18 additional cases Tuesday. Allen County has had a total of 1,050 virus cases reported to date, with 858 of those deemed “fully recovered” and 175 considered active cases. The virus death toll there remains at 17.