Photo: Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Iowa’s first COVID-19 vaccinations went to health care workers in the week before Christmas 2020.
The FDA granted emergency use authorization to Moderna’s vaccine on Friday, Dec. 18. By the following Tuesday, 8,400 Iowa health care workers had been vaccinated. Gov. Kim Reynolds said on Dec. 22 that distribution started immediately, and that because the Moderna shot does not need ultra-cold storage, it could go to rural areas.
Front-line health care workers and long-term care staff and residents were first in line. The CDC was recommending that the next group include adults 75 and older and front-line essential workers, though the state had not decided its next phase yet.
As of Dec. 27, Iowa had 275,295 confirmed cases, up 8,047 from the week before. That was a smaller weekly increase than the state had seen in November, when hospitals were near capacity.
Jill Ostrander writes for Clarion News Online.