Governor Reynolds held her first news conference of 2021 today to talk about where Iowa is on COVID-19 vaccinations. She announced plans to begin vaccinating the second phase of people eligible starting February 1st. This includes first responders, teachers, child care workers and people 65 and older.
The Governor says there are not enough vaccines to go around at this point, so just because people in phase 1b will be eligible next month does not mean they will all get a vaccine right away.
Iowa is getting 19,500 doses of vaccines in each week. This puts the state 46th in the country when it comes to the amount of vaccines allocated to a state. Governor Reynolds says the amount of vaccines each state receives is supposed to be based on population so leaders are trying to understand why Iowa is so far down the list.