At This Years Iowa State Fair You Can Get a Vaccine on a Stick (Kinda)

The Iowa State Fair is coming up fast, fewer than three weeks away. After a tumultuous 2020, the 2021 edition of the State Fair promises to be one of the best in years. Tons of new food options, lots of great music, and also new for 2021: vaccinations. That's right, this year at the annual get-together, Hy-Vee will be hosting a free flu and COVID-19 vaccine clinic. This as COVID cases in the Hawkeye State remains on the rise, thanks to the Delta variant of the virus.

COVID cases in Iowa rose by almost 1,000 in last week

According to the state's COVID-19 dashboard, we saw 1,395 new cases from week to week (July 14 - July 21). While according to the same dashboard, 119,735 Linn County residents 88,284 Johnson County and 62,063 Black Hawk County residents are full vaccinated, cases continue to rise, mainly among younger, unvaccinated Iowans.

As a result, this has prompted state officials to sound a 'vaccine alarm' as cases rise, and vaccinations slow. The push to vaccinate at the Iowa State Fair appears a logical one as many will gather, and could easily swing by the Hy-Vee clinic to get a vaccine.

The clinic will be open each day of the fair

Hy-Vee's vaccination clinic

Hy-Vee will hold walk-up clinics that will be open each day of the fair, which runs August 12-22. They will be set up in West Grand Exhibit area and will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. according to KCCI. As of right now, slightly more than 46% of Iowans are fully vaccinated. Iowa ranks 19th out of 50 in overall vaccination rate, according to Becker's Healthcare.