Floyd County passes on latest state vaccine allocation as clinic numbers decline

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County is one of 21 Iowa counties that told the state they don’t need this week’s allocation of COVID-19 vaccine doses, but the county Public Health administrator said the vaccine is still available and she encouraged anyone who has not received the vaccine to get it.

“It was a case of not having enough people for the clinic,” said Floyd County Public Health Administrator Gail Arjes.

“We’ve called all of our people and they were getting it elsewhere or they had canceled. We knew if we were not going to use all of our allocated vaccine that other places potentially could. Instead of it sitting in our freezer we’d rather have it out there to get in the arms of other Iowans,” she said. “It’s not that we’re turning people away by any means. We’re just not seeing the numbers.”

The county has been receiving 300 doses each week to be used for the first dose of the required two-dose Moderna series. Two hundred of those doses had been distributed by Public Health at weekly clinics at the county fairgrounds, and 100 doses had been given each week to Main Street Drug to be distributed through that business.

The county also receives the additional doses it needs to provide the followup second dose required for full vaccination with the Moderna vaccine.

“Main Street Drug does have some on hand,” Arjes said. “We have some on hand, too, but we have enough that we feel like it can get us through the next couple of weeks.”

She said there is no penalty to the county for passing on the state allocation for a week.

“Just because we turn down one allocation doesn’t mean we won’t be allocated that same amount the following week. We’re not penalized for not accepting it all,” Arjes said.

The Public Health COVID-19 vaccination clinic held Wednesday this week had only 60 people signed up for first-dose vaccinations. As of Thursday afternoon only 15 people had signed up on the county website for the vaccination clinic that will be offered next Friday, April 23, Arjes said.

“I think the people that want to be vaccinated have a lot of options within the county and within the surrounding area,” she said. “Not only Public Health and Main Street Drug, but Hy-Vee is also receiving their own allocation from the federal government. It’s available in a lot of places, so if people want the vaccine they can find it. It’s available.”

Online sign-up information for the three sources in Charles City is:

• Floyd County Public Health — www.floydco.iowa.gov.
• Main Street Drug — www.mainstreetdrugcc.com.
• Hy-Vee — www.hy-vee.com/my-pharmacy/covid-vaccine.

As of Thursday afternoon, almost a third — 32.6% — of Floyd County residents age 18 and older had been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, either in Floyd County or elsewhere. About 46% had either been fully vaccinated or received their first dose.

The state COVID-19 database showed that 3,691 Floyd County adults had received both doses of a two-dose vaccine as of Thursday, and 240 people had received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. An additional 1,626 people had received their first dose.

The latest U.S. census data says there are 12,076 Floyd County residents age 18 and older.

Arjes said she hasn’t received many phone calls about recent decisions to temporarily stop using the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and she advised people to keep news about that vaccine in perspective.

“They’re just trying to be very cautious, make sure they didn’t miss something in their clinical trials,” she said, noting that there were six people who experienced a rare blood-clotting issue after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, out of millions of doses given.

Arjes said that depending on the number of people who sign up, the Floyd County vaccination clinic next Friday could be held at the Public Health office, rather than at the county fairgrounds. That would allow her staff to also work on their other duties.

She said the possibility of giving COVID-19 vaccinations on a walk-in basis at Public Health will depend on a change in packaging. Currently the doses are delivered in 10-dose vials, meaning once a vial has been opened all 10 doses need to be used within a short time. If the vaccines become available in a single-dose format then walk-ins would be possible.

Arjes said she has heard positive feedback on the county’s clinics and the availability of vaccine.

“At this time we feel our response has gone pretty well, once we started getting enough vaccine allocated to us. It was kind of sluggish there at first because we just didn’t have the vaccine that we needed to get to everyone,” she said. “Going forward, we intend to keep doing what we’re doing, having the sign-up specifically for Public Health, the signup online, doing those clinics once a week.”

Arjes said progress is being made against the new coronavirus, but she warned against complacency.

“We’re getting there, but again I want to encourage people to wear their mask, watch the social distancing, wash their hands, all those things that we’ve been preaching through this whole pandemic,” she said. “And get vaccinated. We don’t care where, as long as you get vaccinated.”

Several of the counties that turned down this week’s state allotment of vaccine were in north central Iowa. In addition to Floyd, the counties of Franklin, Hancock, Kossuth and Winnebago declined the weekly allocation.

The other counties that declined the allocation ordered on April 8 were: Adair, Cass, Clay, Crawford, Davis, Decatur, Humboldt, Jackson, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lyon, Osceola, Sac, Union, Webster and Woodbury.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said at a press conference Wednesday that the state would shift those vaccines to counties where the demand was still falling behind the supply.

“We just can’t be sitting on it,” Reynolds said. “We are still going to do everything we can to meet the need. In our larger cities, the need is still there.”