Governor Kim Reynolds announced last week that Phase 1B of COVID-19 vaccinations would expand to make Iowans 65 and older eligible for vaccination, but Washington County Public Health says they are still in short supply of getting the vaccine out to residents.

Phase 1B will begin on February 1st, and contains five tiers of population groups listed in order of priority, with tiers one through three including first responders; PK-12 school staff, early childhood education, and childcare workers; food, agriculture, distribution and manufacturing workers who work in or live in congregate settings that do not allow for social distancing; those with disabilities living in home settings and their direct care staff; staff of and individuals living in congregate settings that does not include college dormitories; and government officials excluding county or city employees. Tiers four and five cover inspectors responsible for hospital, long-term care, and child safety; and correctional facility staff and those incarcerated.

Washington County Public Health Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski says her department has been allocated 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine, compared to 600 for Phase 1A. She says they will be jointly prioritizing both the elderly population and the designated tiers, “What I have to stress is that our demand just increased significantly while our supply did not. There’s over half a million people in Iowa who are over the age of 65, we did not get that much vaccine allocated to us as a state, so this will take time. So just because Phase 1B starts on February 1st, does not mean we will be able to schedule everybody’s vaccine for that week.”

Pettit-Majewski says they will be scheduling closed POD (Point-of-Distribution) and public clinics as they continue to get vaccine allocations, so there may be some delays between clinics. She asks for residents to be patient as the Phase 1B population grew significantly while the allocation did not. As of Friday, the state coronavirus dashboard shows that Washington County has administered 1,266 vaccines, while the total doses administered in Iowa is 177,520.