The Crittenton Center in Sioux City is closing its emergency shelter permanently, after a temporary closure was announced earlier this month. The director says issues related to COVID-19 played a big part in that decision. The center's executive director said in a news release today that staff absenteeism related to COVID and a decrease in new applicants make it challenging to run the center. The emergency shelter was opened in the late 1970s at 3901 Green Ave. In 2020, 180 children were cared for by the shelter. The Sioux City Journal reports that the chair of the Crittenton Center's board of directors says they will collaborate with community partners to identify areas of need and how the agency can reimagine its shelter facility to best fill those needs.
At her weekly news conference today, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds drove home her support for coronavirus shots. That's a day after health officials advised pausing administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to the potential for a rare side effect. Reynolds publicly received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine on March 3. She says she does not regret it. The governor said the vaccines are the best defense against the virus, and the reward far outweighs the risk.
Reynolds said the federal announcement of the pause in administration came Tuesday without prior notification to states. She said Iowa is continuing to make adjustments on vaccine allocation. But she said she anticipates the impact of stopping the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be "manageable" due to the increasing quantities of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines the state is receiving.
