More Iowans can get COVID-19 vaccine
Those under 65 with pre-existing medical conditions qualify
Share
Tweet
CDC PHOTO
Prior to Monday's expansion, Iowa was in Phase 1B of vaccine rollout. It included Iowans 65 and older as well some essential workers broken into five tiers.
More Iowans are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Effective March 8, Iowa vaccine providers were allowed to start vaccinating additional priority populations. Individuals 64 years of age and younger with medical conditions that are or may be an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 are now eligible. Conditions listed on the CDC's website include cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, obesity, Type 2 diabetes as well as several others.
O'Brien County Public Health Director Kim Morran said her office is receiving 200 doses of Moderna's vaccine each week, which is unchanged from February.
"We have not started getting the other vaccines, but we hope that changes in the near future," she said. "We have been very busy but we are able to keep up. We're working a lot of overtime, but our priority is to get people vaccinated as fast as we get doses."
O'Brien County Public Health has hosted several vaccine clinics for qualifying individuals since the vaccine became available. Lewis Family Drug and Hy-Vee Pharmacy, both in Sheldon, are also administering COVID-19 vaccines.
The White House announced last week that by May, the country's vaccine supply would be plentiful enough for everyone over the age of 16 to receive one. That's two months ahead of previous estimates, which was encouraging to Morran.
Still, the current amount of vaccine will require some folks to wait for a shot longer than they might have hoped.
"Please be patient," she said. "As the state has opened up the 65 and under with underlying health conditions, we all need to be patient as we do not have enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone at once. It takes time and patience. We will eventually get everyone vaccinated that wants to be."
Prior to Monday's expansion, Iowa was in Phase 1B of vaccine rollout. It included Iowans 65 and older as well some essential workers broken into five tiers. They include K-12 school staff, first responders, childcare workers, meat processing plant employees, disabled Iowans living in congregate settings, government inspectors and others.
• Clay County's COVID-19 positivity rate grows
COVID-19 positivity rates in Clay County increased over the past week.
Locally, Clay County's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate Tuesday evening was up from 3 percent the previous week to 8 percent. O'Brien County's positivity rate was down from 6 percent to 5 percent over that same time period. Statewide, the seven-day rate was 3.9 percent, down from 4.4 percent a week ago.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Kim Morran, director of O'Brien County Public Health.
Coronavirus-related deaths were unchanged in O'Brien and Clay counties at 58 and 25, respectively. Those numbers have been the same for the past three weeks. Statewide, there have been 5,574 fatalities, up from 5,498 last week.
Confirmed infections since the pandemic began tallied 1,979 in O'Brien County, 1,962 in Clay County and 367,899 statewide. Recoveries in that same order were 1,704, 1,774 and 321,517.
As of Sunday, there were 179 coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Iowa, down from 197 the previous week. Two hospitalizations were reported in O'Brien County while Clay County had zero.
O'Brien County has initiated 1,654 vaccine series and completed 1,216, while Clay County has initiated 2,111 series and completed 2,763.
