restrictions

It’s unclear why Iowa will receive fewer doses of coronavirus vaccine than initially promised by the federal government.

But the state is moving ahead with plans to relax restrictions beginning Thursday even while reporting nearly 100 additional deaths.

The Iowa Department of Public Health released a statement Wednesday evening saying the state’s allocation would be reduced by up to 30%.

The statement noted distributions were also being lowered to other states. The agency didn’t explain why the allocation would be smaller.

Vaccine distribution plans will be discussed Monday afternoon by Siouxland public health officials.  Siouxland District Health Department and Dakota County Health Department will hold a press conference Monday afternoon at the Security Institute at Western Iowa Tech, to provide information related to COVID19 vaccine plans.  That press conference is set for 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at Sioux City’s two major medical facilities reached an all-time high on Monday. 

MercyOne and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s are caring for a combined 102 patients, with 72 battling COVID-19 only.  The previous high was in late May when patient levels reached the mid 90s. 

Hospitalizations continued to fall in other parts of Iowa.  However, some health care officials are expressing concern that they may rise again if Thanksgiving gatherings caused additional virus spread as expected.

The Iowa Department of Public reports 35 more deaths due to complications of COVID-19 in the past 24-hours and more than 3,500 new cases.  Plus, the state set another record for hospitalizations linked to the virus.

At a news conference today, Governor Kim Reynolds says if current trends don’t change more restrictions will be put in place to prevent the spread of the virus and ease the health care surge. 

Gov. Pete Ricketts announced new restrictions on Friday after a surge of new cases and hospitalizations in Nebraska.

“It’s pained me to put restrictions on people’s personal liberty and businesses. But, it was necessary to be able to preserve hospital capacity.”

Statewide there are more than 320 hospitalized with COVID-19.  That’s 40% more than May, during the peak of the pandemic.

“Remember all the steps we have taken is to preserve hospital capacity with 30% of hospital beds, 29% of ICU beds and 70% of ventilators.”