COVID-19 Vaccines Have Arrived in Iowa, Immunizations Underway
At 9:20 a.m. this morning, CNN reports a woman named Sandra Lindsay received a COVID-19 vaccine on live video from the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City. An ICU nurse, Lindsay is one of the first known people to have received the vaccination. I'm also happy to report the vaccines have begun to be administered in the state of Iowa.
Both the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City and UnityPoint Health in Des Moines received their first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning and have begun immunizations.
KCRG reports around 1,000 doses of the vaccine have been received by University of Iowa Health Care. This morning, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics announced their vaccinations were the first to occur in Iowa saying, "Today, University of Iowa Health Care is the first in the state to start vaccinating employees with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19." Also in their statement, Suresh Gunasekaran, MBA and CEO of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and associate vice president of University of Iowa Health Care (UI Health Care) said, "This is an historic moment to change the course of the pandemic and we are proud of our role as leaders in this process."
Today, over 50 employees of UI Health Care are expected to receive the first of two vaccines necessary for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Last week, a UI Health Care internal survey of employees showed that, of the 12,000 who responded, 85 percent say they would get the vaccine when it's offered.
Meanwhile, KCCI says UnityPoint Health in Des Moines also received its first shipments today. The vaccines are part of over 170,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are expected to arrive in Iowa before the month of December is over.
When will you be able to get the vaccine? Dr. Anthony Fauci told MSNBC this morning that he believes vaccinations of people without underlying conditions will begin in either late March or early in April.