With the second COVID-19 vaccine receiving approval in recent days, area healthcare officials are eagerly anticipating the arrival of vaccine.

Hamilton County Public Health will serve as the local distribution point for the vaccine. The agency will keep about one-third of the doses and will distribute two-thirds to Van Diest Medical Center and clinics.

The first round of the vaccine has been designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Iowa Department of Public Health for healthcare workers and for those living and working in longterm care facilities. Vaccine for area care facilities will be distributed by nationwide pharmacies.

The health department, in addition to vaccinating its own staff, will also provide vaccine to workers in the various medical clinics around the county. At the hospital, the first group of staff members to receive vaccinations will be those charged with direct patient care at the hospital. They will then follow the IDPH prioritization guidelines after that to vaccinate all staff who wish to receive the vaccine, hospital officials said.

Amy McDonough, VDMC chief nursing officer, said once the hospital’s vaccine arrives, it go to the pharmacy department. The pharmacy has the refrigeration equipment necessary to store the vaccine.

Jordan Wagner, hospital pharmacist, said the vaccine storage poses no real challenges for VDMC.

“We have other vaccines that have to be stored at the same temperature and we have plenty of room to store it when the vaccine arrives,” he said.

Hamilton County will be receiving the Moderna vaccine, which requires normal cold storage compared to the Pfizer vaccine that requires extreme cold storage.

The vaccine is expected to be delivered sometime next week.

“It’s hard with the holidays,” McDonough said. “But we’re looking to start staff vaccinations the beginning of January, so we’ll have some more prep time, if needed.”

McDonough said the team has been discussing the logistics of the vaccination process.

“We’ve looked at how we’re going to administer, how we’re going to monitor and how many we can vaccinate at a time safely,” she said. “In case there is a reaction, we’ll make sure we have the needed meds on hand.”

The vast majority of those receiving the vaccine will likely experience very few if any side effects from the vaccine.

“People may see things similar to what we see with the influenza vaccine,” said Carla Johnson, infection prevention nurse at VDMC. “There might be tenderness at the injection site, maybe a feeling of being tired, some might have a low-grade fever. Those are all the symptoms that are indicative of a good immune response by your body.

“Usually those symptoms come and go within 24 to 48 hours,” she added.

People with severe allergies could have a anaphylactic reaction, but that is rare, the health officials said.

Johnson said any employees who have had a reaction to any vaccine in the past will be asked to consult with their physician before taking the COVID-19 shot.

That will also be the case once the vaccine is available to the general public, said Shelby Kroona, Hamilton County Public Health administrator.

“Anyone that the health department vaccinates, if somebody has immunocompromised systems, if they have a lot of allergies or carry an epi-pen, we’re going to ask them to check with their provider prior to getting vaccinated.”

News accounts last week indicated that Iowa could be receiving as much as 30 percent less of its anticipated vaccine allotment. That shouldn’t be the case for Hamilton County.

“We’re hearing that’s related to Pfizer, since that’s the first vaccine released. We checked our database and our allotment of the Moderna is the same,” said Kroona. “We shouldn’t see a decrease.”

McDonough said even after staff members receive their vaccinations, the hospital will continue to follow protocols, using personal protective equipment as necessary.

“Our normal processes of how we care for patients will continue,” she said.

The hospital and clinic will also continue its screening practices for patients which include taking temperatures upon arrival, asking screening questions and segregating those with respiratory illnesses from other patients, according to Leigh Miller, clinics director. “We’ll also continue to screen staff members.”

Inpatient hospitalizations have increased in the past few weeks, and there have been a steady flow of patients presenting to the emergency department at VDMC.

“Those patients that we can keep and care for, we do,” said Lisa Ridge, chief executive officer at VDMC. “Patients who need a higher level care are transferred to a higher-level facility. That’s up to the patient and where we can find a safe bed.”

Ridge said the no-contact COVID testing site behind the hospital for those patients who did not need to see a provider has also seen a steady flow throughout the past few weeks.

“Although the teams are tired and ready for the vaccines to be here and show some reprieve, they have all done a fabulous job of staying constant and determined and giving excellent care,” Ridge said.

Some have said the vaccine represents a light at the end of a long tunnel, but the health officials with the county and VDMC encourage people to continue practicing the prescribed public health protocols — wear a face mask when away from home, social distance as much as possible, avoid large gatherings and wash hands frequently.

How will we know when it’s safe to discontinue those efforts?

“I think we’ll be waiting for federal or state confirmation as to when we can stop wearing masks,” said Kroona. “It will be many months down the road from now.”