State officials will reduce next week’s share of Covid vaccine doses for a handful of Iowa counties that have lagged behind in getting the shots administered, according to Radio Iowa. Doses are being distributed, based on population. Iowa Department of Public Health acting director Kelly Garcia said the goal is for counties to get at least 80% of weekly doses out the door — and five counties are below that threshold. Garcia made her comments during a telephone town hall with AARP members. She did not name the five counties.
The Iowa Department of Public Health on Friday was reporting another 27 COVID-19 deaths and an additional 738 confirmed cases. At 10 a.m. today, the state was reporting a total 5,223 COVID-19-related deaths, according to the state's website. In Woobury County, there have been 15 new cases added to the total case count in the last 24 hours and no new deaths. And the Sioux City Community School District reports this week there has been one student and one staff member who attended school that reported a positive case of COVID-19.
The southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg has finally gotten federal approval to raise its flood protection levee. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday announced it had approved the city’s plan to raise the levee by about 8 feet. The decision comes nearly 10 years after the Corps scrambled to help the town of about 1,200 temporarily raise the levee, which saved it from devastating floods that year. But once the floodwaters subsided, the Corps insisted that the work be undone, and the town was later inundated by historic flooding in 2019.
