There was confusion on Thursday over how much COVID-19 vaccine Iowa will receive in its initial shipments from the federal government. During her Dec. 3 news conference, Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state had been told it would receive 172,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines by the end of December. But on Wednesday […]
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Gov. Reynolds relaxes COVID-19 restrictions while Trump administration cuts Iowa’s allotment of vaccine by 30 percent
At her news conference on Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds highlighted how much virus activity in Iowa has declined since she imposed some new COVID-19 restrictions on Nov. 16, before announcing she was relaxing some of those restrictions. “Bars and restaurants can resume their normal hours of operation,” the governor said. In her Nov. 16 emergency […]
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Iowa is spending $10m in federal pandemic aid on state police salaries
After insisting for two months that spending $21 million in federal pandemic aid on a new computer system unrelated to COVID-19 was a legitimate use of that money, Gov. Kim Reynolds reversed her position on Monday and ordered those funds returned to the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund. Iowa Auditor Rob Sand first informed the Reynolds […]
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Healthcare workers in Linn County begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine
Two Linn County hospitals received their first allotment of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Linn County Public Health (LCPH) announced in a news release. Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital each received 975 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to distribute to frontline healthcare workers as part of the first phase of vaccine distribution. […]
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COVID-19 vaccinations begin at UIHC as 60 new deaths are reported in Iowa
Frontline healthcare workers at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics started receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday morning. Vaccination programs around the country have begun following the FDA’s emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine Friday night. Emergency room RN David Conway was the first person at UIHC to receive the vaccine. “How’d it feel?” one […]
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Gov. Reynolds returns $21 million in misspent federal aid to state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund
On Monday afternoon, Gov. Kim Reynolds gave up trying to claim she could use $21 million in federal pandemic relief funds to pay for a computer system upgrade that wasn’t related to COVID-19. In a written statement, the governor’s office shared that “Governor Reynolds has directed the Iowa Department of Management to return $21 million […]
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Linn County expected to receive first COVID-19 vaccine doses next week
Linn County Public Health (LCPH) anticipates receiving the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine next week and plans to begin distributing the vaccine to healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities. More information about the county’s vaccine distribution will be shared next week, according to LCPH. Gov. Kim Reynolds said during her Dec. […]
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Iowa surpasses 250,000 COVID-19 cases as the Pfizer vaccine takes another step towards FDA approval
Late Thursday afternoon, the FDA’s vaccine advisory panel voted 17 to 4, with one abstention, to recommend the agency grant emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to people 16 and older. The FDA almost always follows the panel’s recommendations, and the emergency use authorization is expected to happen quickly. The four […]
Posted inCommunity/News, COVID-19
Q&A: Two Iowa nurses share challenges, experiences of working during COVID-19 pandemic
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Iowa hospitals have been overwhelmed, especially in recent months as hospitalizations due to the virus continued to reach record-breaking numbers. The dire situation facing Iowa’s hospitals and healthcare workers has been featured prominently in recent stories in The Atlantic and ProPublica. “In a lot of ways, Iowa is serving as the […]
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Gov. Reynolds relaxes some COVID-19 restrictions as deaths from the virus surpass 3,000
Iowa surpassed 3,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, but Gov. Kim Reynolds started her news conference late Wednesday morning by focusing on positive trends. “We are now nearly two weeks out from the Thanksgiving holiday, and we continue to see the same slow, steady in new cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations that we have since […]
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Iowa will now follow CDC standards for reporting COVID-19 deaths
Last week, the Iowa Department of Public Health set a record by reporting 70 deaths from COVID-19 in a 24-hour period. On Tuesday at 10 a.m., IDPH reported 202 more deaths from the virus. But as Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) Director Kelly Garcia explained to reporters on Monday night, 175 of those cases […]
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All 99 counties in Iowa have now reported deaths from COVID-19
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported another 35 deaths from COVID-19 during the 24-hour period that ended at 10 a.m. Among the deceased was the first COVID-19 fatality from Decatur County, which had been the sole remaining county with no COVID-19 deaths. Now, all 99 counties in Iowa have reported at least one death […]
