Iowa Department of Public Health Covid Vaccine Update
Last updated 01/13/2021
Your health and safety are our top priority. Vaccines are a critical strategy in the response to COVID-19. Getting vaccinated can prevent you from getting the virus. It can also protect those around you from getting infected. Mahaska Health has decades of experience delivering vaccinations safely and efficiently. We’re rigorously reviewing the research to ensure that any vaccines we provide meet our clinical standards.
Mahaska Health is partnering with federal, state and county public health departments on allocation and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. Our health care workers and emergency responders have begun receiving the second dose of the vaccine. The first phase of vaccine distribution focuses on frontline health care workers.
We are following the Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines to distribute the vaccine equitably, starting with those at highest risk for COVID-19 exposure. The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Infectious Disease Advisory Council (IDAC) provided additional guidance to help further prioritize within the priority groups established by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). We will update you here and by also by email as we get more information about who becomes eligible. You can also sign up for MahaskaAlert email updates here.
As more vaccines are approved and more vaccine doses are manufactured and distributed, the CDC will open access to and prioritization for other population groups, including older adults and people with underlying health risks. We expect production of the vaccine to increase in 2021, when there will eventually be enough supply of the vaccine for everyone who would like to receive it.
Mahaska Health is charged first with vaccinating its employees and looks forward to more information on when the vaccines will become available to the general public. The vaccines are not yet available to the general public. The first limited doses are being given to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, as required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the State of Iowa. Like all Iowa health systems, we are working closely with the CDC and state health departments charged with vaccine distribution in our state. Mahaska Health is following all state and federal recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine distribution.