Gov. Kim Reynolds says state officials are looking into why Iowa has one of the lowest vaccination rates per capita in the country. Iowa is moving into vaccinating those in phase 1-b, but it ranks near the bottom in the country for the number of first doses administered and its vaccine allocation.
Gov. Kim Reynolds says state officials are reaching out to counties and health providers to determine what's slowing down the vaccination process.
You know, they're hesitant to schedule appointments when they're not sure if they're going to get their allocation next week because it's been, you know, that's been a variable the from the federal administration as well.
Reynolds says she's also speaking to federal officials about the state's vaccine allocation, which she says is the fifth-lowest in the nation. According to the New York Times, just 6 point 3 percent of Iowans have received at least one vaccine dose.
The last three months have been devastating for Iowans when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. At least 5,000 Iowa families are grieving a lost loved one because of COVID-19. Nearly 60% of those who succumbed to the virus ] died in the past three months. Iowa reached the milestone of 5000 deaths today. It was March 24, 2020, when the state Department of Public Health confirmed the first COVID-19 death in Iowa. The death toll stood at 5,033 as of 10 a.m. today, with 58 additional deaths reported in the past 24 hours, some of them confirmed from days or even weeks before.
