Late Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15 years old. The announcement came moments after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said that approval was key in his decision on lifting pandemic capacity restrictions. The governor said on Monday that waiting on the federal government’s approval of the vaccine for that age group would directly impact his timeline for increasing capacities.

“Once we know when that is going to occur, we believe that we will be able to set a timeline for 100% capacity certainly in events, venues, businesses, etc., with under 1,000 people.  What we want to do is give time for this age group to get vaccinated because they are certainly out and about in these types of activities,” the governor replied.

Governor Beshear’s office did not immediately update their timeline following the FDA announcement.

Recently there have been increased calls to lift restrictions on businesses. Governor Beshear insisted that the tax receipts from April prove the commonwealth is, “more open than any other April, in our history.” He shared statistics showing that more taxes were paid in the month than any other April.

Earlier Monday, the Office of State Budget Director reported April sales and tax receipts were $486.5 million. That amounted to a 9.5% increase over April 2020, the first full month in which Kentucky experienced COVID closures.