95% of Iowans 65 and older have had a Covid shot

DES MOINES — Governor Kim Reynolds says Iowa has “turned the corner” when it comes to vaccinating Iowans.

“We just hit our one-millionth vaccination here in Iowa. That’s great news,” Reynolds says. “Ninety-five percent of 65 years old and (above) have had at least one dose and we just continue to see those numbers increase.”

The state website tracking vaccinations shows the state has distributed 72,500 doses of vaccine over the past seven days. The federal government is shipping additional doses directly to participating pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS.

“We’ve actually turned the corner,” Reynolds says. “We’ve worked with a lot of our local pharmacies. We’ve worked with a lot of our local hospitals and clinics. HyVee has been a tremendous partner in helping us get those out as well as our local public health teams have also been from and center in helping us really distribute the vaccine, set up mass vaccination clinics.”

Nearly 409,000 Iowans have had both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. About 30,000 Iowans have gotten the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Information updated just this morning on the state website shows on impact the vaccines are having in Iowa. There are just two Iowa nursing homes listed as having Covid outbreaks. There are 18 active infections among staff or residents at facilities in Davenport and Wapello.

At the end of November, more than 150 nursing homes had Covid outbreaks. State officials have confirmed 2,217 nursing home residents died of Covid.