The Washington County Board of Supervisors received an update on the next phase of COVID-19 vaccinations during their regular meeting Tuesday.

Washington County Public Health Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski informed the supervisors that Iowa is still in Phase 1A of distribution, and so far the county has administered 1,037 vaccines while the state overall has administered 142,614. Pettit-Majewski says her department has been informed that Phase 1B is anticipated to begin on February 1st, though hers and other county departments don’t know either how many doses they will receive or when she will receive that information, “Initially, what the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) put out as who should be in Phase 1B was between half a million and three-quarters of a million Iowans, and so IDAC, which is the Infectious Disease Advisory Council, had to refine that classification because there wasn’t enough vaccine allocation to meet that demand. So what we’re looking at is a group between 300-400,000 but we also know that the vaccine allocation to the state is only going to be 226,000 doses.”

Phase 1B includes people aged 75 and older, as well as correctional facility staff and individuals incarcerated, staff of and individuals living in congregate settings not including college dormitories, school staff, early childhood education, and childcare workers, first responders, and government officials. Pettit-Majewski told the supervisors she has contacted all of the first responder departments in the county to get their rosters for vaccinations. Phase 1B is expected to last around five weeks.