Primghar, Iowa — While all counties in Iowa recently started Phase 1B of COVID vaccinations, the way that plays out in every county is different. That’s from Kim Morran, the Director of O’Brien County Public Health.
She says they actually started Phase 1B on Friday.
(as said) “We did South O’Brien schools and part of Sheldon Schools and St. Pat’s. We scheduled last Friday. We were told by the state that if we were done with phase 1A that we could go ahead and start phase 1B early. So a lot of the schools want to be done on a Friday, which is understandable.”
Morran tells us that since the vaccine is trickling in, they can’t really set up any big clinics in the county yet.
(as said) “We get like a hundred doses a week if that. Like for instance last week we didn’t get any then we got a hundred. I’m hoping we’ll get more but it’s kind of trickling in like that in hundreds or 200 amounts. Mostly we’re getting prime doses in the allotment of like a hundred doses a week. We have already really been working on the 75 and older. They didn’t open up the 65 and older until phase 1B, but like whenever we’ve had extra doses — because they’re 10 those vials and they have to be used within six hours — we’ve already started contacting people on that list in trickles to get them done when we have extra doses. “
She says the vaccine that they have coming in is used as it’s received. They’re not holding or sitting on doses. She says right now all the Pfizer vaccine is going to long-term care. She tells us once that’s done, the number of doses they receive could potentially double.
We asked her why they’re focusing on teachers and first responders, and other counties’ hospitals are calling elderly people or having them call in to schedule their vaccinations.
(as said) “Some counties will give all their doses … like Sioux County for instance. The public health department has not given a single dose. They have allotted all their doses to the providers. So then the providers are pretty much in charge of how they’re giving those vaccinations out whether they’re calling patients or you know, I don’t know if they’re calling the teachers and having them come there or how they’re setting that up or if they have like oc health (occupational health) going to the schools. I can’t answer how every county is doing it, but they’ve basically given that control to public health, so either they’re going out themselves and giving the vaccine or they’ve allotted it to a provider to give.”
She says it doesn’t seem logical to give the hospitals in the county 20 or 50 doses. She tells us she’s hoping when they start receiving bigger shipments to send vaccine to Sanford Sheldon and Mercy One in Primghar. And then it will be up to the hospitals and clinics how to proceed to vaccinate those 65 and over and potentially others whose tiers come up in Phase 1B.
