IPR file
Vials of the Moderna vaccine sit in a cart at a Tama County COVID-19 vaccine clinic on Feb. 1.
State officials announced last week that five counties had not hit the state s new requirement to use 80 percent of their COVID-19 primary doses and would not be receiving their allotment for this week, but that s confusing some counties.
State officials said they have made no changes to a new policy that would pause vaccine delivery for five Iowa counties, a policy that’s causing confusion for some of the affected counties.
Last week, state officials announced that five counties would not receive their weekly vaccine allotment in accordance with the state’s new requirement that counties administer at least 80 percent of their first doses before receiving their next allocation.
Radio Iowa
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Counties concerned about withholding of Covid vaccine doses
Public health officials in five counties are expressing confusion, dismay and frustration over the state’s decision to withhold each county’s share of Covid-19 vaccine doses this week.
State officials say those counties fell below administering at least 80% of the doses it had received. Jennifer Havens, the CEO of UnityPoint Health in Grinnell, says Poweshiek County scheduled this week’s vaccinations on Friday and weren’t aware state officials would check the schedule on Thursday.
“It’s not that we’re hanging onto them,” she says. “We had every dose accounted for.”
A handful of counties in Iowa will get vaccine shipments this week after addressing misunderstandings behind a new policy that would have withheld them.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa health officials have modified a decision to withhold COVID-19 vaccines from some counties that were reported as not having used up to 80% of their allocation last.
Des Moines Register
Vaccine shipments are expected to resume soon to five rural Iowa counties that the state last week weren t using at least 80% of what they already had on hand.
The county health departments contended they did meet a state rule requiring they use up at least 80% of their COVID-19 vaccine stock before receiving more. Directors at three of the county agencies said Monday they believed that the issue had been resolved and that they would be receiving this week s allocation on Friday, which would be about three days later than expected.
But later Monday, the Iowa Department of Public Health said that the vaccine the five counties would be receiving soon would be from the allocation aimed at next week.