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Vaccine has arrived

Kroona updates supervisors, outlines vaccination plans

The much-anticipated Moderna COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Hamilton County Tuesday, according to officials with Hamilton County Public Health.

Shelby Kroona, public health administrator, spoke about the vaccine procedures Tuesday during the Board of Supervisors meeting. First to be vaccinated will be frontline healthcare workers and those living in longterm care facilities.

She said her agency was splitting its allotment with Van Diest Medical Center. VDMC will vaccinate staff members involved in direct patient care at the hospital and family health clinic. Public health will vaccinate its frontline workers and healthcare workers in the county’s smaller clinics.

She added that the federal pharmacy program will handle vaccinations for longterm and assisted living facilities.

Kroona said the vaccine will be free to all who chose to receive it. However, all facilities will be charging an administration fee to Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance companies. People will be asked to bring in their insurance, Medicare or Medicaid cards.

“If you don’t have insurance, do not worry, we’ll still have the vaccine available for you,” she said.

Kroona also gave a COVID-19 update for the county.

As of Tuesday, 6,012 people have been tested for the virus in Hamilton County. Of that total, 4,603 have tested negative and 1,405 have had positive test results since reporting began in April.

Currently, the 14 day positivity rate for Hamilton County is 19.5 percent.

“We’re seeing activity in all zip codes of the county,” she said. “There is still wide community spread.”

The days to double — the time required to double the number of cases — has decreased to 42 days.

“That’s still a very short period of time, but we’re seeing some movement in the right direction.

“Our fear is what will happen after Christmas gatherings take place,” she said. “The healthcare system in Iowa is close to full and very busy and very stressed.”

Kroona said that testing had fallen off quite a bit in the county.

“That does not mean the virus is not around. In November, we were having anywhere from 45 to 145 people take a COVID test,” she said. The last two weeks have averaged 20 or fewer a day.

“I realize that some people have decided that if they have symptoms, they aren’t going to test. But that diminishes our ability to say how wide spread it is in our community. It also means that people don’t end up on the contact tracing list so there’s more spread going on under the radar,” according to Kroona.

The largest percentage of cases fall within the19-24 year-old age group with a 10 percent positivity rate. The 30 to 34 age group and the 45 to 49 age group have 9 percent positivity rates.

“Those are our spreaders. We’re seeing a lot of family spread within those households,” she said.

There have been 21 deaths in Hamilton County attributed to COVID-19. The majority of those deaths occurred in November, she said.

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