Governor Kim Reynolds’ announcement Wednesday that all Iowans 16 years and older would be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine on April 5th was discussed at the Washington County Board of Health meeting Thursday.

The announcement came as the federal vaccine supply is projected to increase, and Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski commented on how this will affect their planning, “Based on our percent population of elderly, and our percent population of those with underlying health conditions, I think that those should be our priority before we vaccinate healthy adults. We can’t control what retail pharmacies do, but I think as a county, as a board, as a health department, we should prioritize those who are at greater risk, especially considering the increase in the U.K. variant.”

Pettit-Majewski mentioned that Washington County has seen some cases of the U.K. variant as the Iowa Department of Public Health confirmed 38 additional cases Wednesday, and it is seen to be able to spread faster and more easily than other variants. Pettit-Majewski mentioned that the U.K. variant has been spreading recently in Texas and Florida, two popular spring break locations, and she’s interested to see how that might affect Iowans. The county is still getting 300 vaccine doses per week this March, with no word yet on April’s allocation.