Iowa prepares for first wave of COVID-19 vaccine

The first doses of COVID-19 vaccine may reach Iowa as early as next week.

Governor Kim Reynolds gave an update on the status of vaccine distribution on Thursday, December 3, detailing when the first doses are tentatively scheduled to arrive, how many the state will be receiving, and who will get them.

Two vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are racing through the federal approval process and are expected to receive emergency approvals from the FDA within the next few days.

“It truly is remarkable to think that before the end of this very challenging year, vaccination could be starting here in Iowa,” said Reynolds.

According to state reports, the Pfizer vaccine has reported a 95% success rate in protecting against COVID-19. It is currently the vaccine furthest along in the approval process. Approval of the Moderna vaccine, which has a 94.5% success rate, is anticipated to follow shortly after.

There are some differences between the two vaccines. The Pifzer vaccine requires ultra-cold storage and is only stable at refrigerator temperatures for up to five days, limiting the areas that it can effectively be distributed.

The Moderna vaccine can be stored in more conventional freezers and is stable at refrigerator temperatures for 30 days.

Both vaccines will require two doses, taken 3-4 weeks apart, to fully inoculate against the novel coronavirus.

“Pending its approval, we anticipate receiving our first shipment of approximately 26,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine around December 13,” said Reynolds.

Following the initial shipment of Pfizer vaccine, Reynolds expects another 31,000 doses for the week of December 20 and 38,000 doses for the week of December 27.

For the Moderna vaccine, Reynolds anticipates the first shipment of 54,000 doses on December 20, followed by another 24,000 doses the week after.

“In total, that’s 172,000 COVID-19 vaccinations to protect Iowans,” said Reynolds.

With such limited quantities of vaccine to go around, distribution of the first wave will be prioritized for the healthcare system workforce and residents of long-term care facilities.

A team of experts, known collectively as the Infectious Disease Advisory Council, will provide guidance on how the vaccine will be distributed once the first priority populations are taken care of. More than a thousand providers have signed up to administer the vaccine in the state, with more signing on every day.

In the meantime, just because there is a vaccine on the way does not mean this is the time for people to start shirking social distancing. It will take several months before enough vaccine is available to effectively stymie the spread of the virus among the general public. Until then, stopping the spread of the virus still depends on people behaving in accordance with public health guidelines.

“I am pleased to say that we’re seeing steady signs of improvement, but we still have much work to do,” said Reynolds. “Now that Thanksgiving has passed, we’re also going to be closely monitoring case counts, positivity rate, and hospitalizations over the next two weeks for any significant increase.”

As of Sunday, December 6, there have been 244,689 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, increasing the 228,691 total from the week prior by 15,998 cases. This is a slight reduction in new cases compared to the previous week.

The state no longer reports the total number of cases by age groups but does break down the positive cases over the last seven and 14 days. In the last two weeks, 6% of the new cases have been among the elderly (age 80+), 19% among older adults (60-79); 28% among middle aged adults (40-59); 25% among young adults (18-39); and 12% among children.

With 160,836 cases considered recovered, that leaves roughly 81,142 Iowans currently known to be fighting the disease. This marks the first decrease in the number of concurrent active cases in several weeks.

Likewise, the number of hospitalizations also saw an encouraging decline over the last week with 898 patients hospitalized as of Sunday, including 200 in an ICU.

COVID-19 testing is set to continue on through the winter. The final outdoor TestIowa testing site was set to move to an indoor location over the weekend. By this week, all five outdoor testing sites should be up and running in their new indoor locations.

In total, 1,250,963 individuals in Iowa have been tested for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and the state has processed 2,590,121 tests in that time. This includes 1,982,642 PCR tests and 607,479 antigen tests.

Reynolds announced that the state recently topped their record for tests performed in a single day with 6,703 tested.

In the last two weeks, 11.4% of tests have come back positive, a definite improvement over the 32% positive rate seen in early November.

In addition, 77,838 Iowans have undergone serology testing for coronavirus antibodies, which would indicate that they have had the virus. Of that number, 5,189, about 7%, have tested positive for antibodies.

Unfortunately, the number of COVID-19 related deaths has again spiked, with 318 deaths reported this week bringing the total death count to 2,717.

In total, approximately 1,434 elderly (52.78%); 1,062 older adults (39.09%), 188 middle aged adults (6.92%), 32 young adults (1.18%), and at least one child (.04%) have died from the virus since the pandemic began.

Of the new deaths, 62 have been attributed to outbreaks in long term care facilities, bringing the number of deaths in these facilities to 1,125.

With no new cases reported, several long term care facilities in the state are no longer considered to be under an outbreak. The number of outbreaks in long term care facilities has fallen to 139, consisting of 5,378 positive individuals with 2,324 recovered.

Overall, metrics seem to be moving in positive directions, bringing up the possibility that Governor Reynolds may decide to allow the recent conditional mask mandate and other restrictions to expire this month.

Finally, with the economic effects of COVID-19 still impacting Iowa businesses, Reynolds called on Congress to pass a second relief package. Congress passed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in late March, but that has been the end of federal financial support for the pandemic. The House of Representatives have since passed two bills for additional financial relief, but the Senate has declined to bring up either for a vote nor have they passed a bill of their own.

“While I didn’t close any businesses, the limited hours of operations and social distancing requirements have had an impact on our hospitality industry, through no fault of their own,” said Reynolds. “It’s time for Congress to come together and and get a relief package passed.”