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Vaccines Will First go to Iowa Nursing Home Residents and Their Health Care Providers

The state of Iowa will prioritize health care workers and the most vulnerable citizens as it distributes COVID-19 vaccinations. 

At a press conference today, Governor Kim Reynolds said she expects the first distributions to nursing home residents to start on Dec. 13th. There will be a shipment of 26,000 doses of a vaccine developed by Pfizer.  Iowa will receive more doses over the next few weeks. And that includes a vaccine from Moderna, for a total of 172,000 doses by the end of December.

The vaccines require two doses, and general distribution will not happen right away.  The general public won’t be able to get the vaccine for about six months.  
The announcement comes the same week the state reports more than 100 thousand people tested positive for the coronavirus in November, and more than 600 died of COVID-19.  Another 70 people in Iowa died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. It was the largest one-day increase since the pandemic arrived in the state. According to Siouxland District Health, today 146 new cases were reported, and there were five additional deaths from COVID-19 in Woodbury County. 
The governor also talked about the need to keep students in school because they are falling behind reading scores.  Reynolds said positivity rates in schools are low, and those who test positive are likely to have been exposed through community spread

The Sioux City Police Department today announced that it has fully deployed body cameras for its officers. 
 During a news conference today,  Sioux City Police Chief Rex Mueller said police phased them into operation in less than eight weeks.

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