(Radio Iowa) – State public health officials say Iowa’s overall vaccination rate is inching up, but parts of the state are lagging behind. Seventy-one percent of Iowans over the age of 11 have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Ken Sharp of the Iowa Department of Public Health says the vaccination rate is lower among middle-aged white men and 20 to 30 year olds in general.

“We still have, as everybody recognizes, a ways to go, but we are making progress,” he says. “…We continue to see new Iowans come into that dataset to get their first vaccine, so we’re just going to continue to kind of grind away at getting those numbers as high as we possibly can.”

Sharp says about 7000 Iowa kids ages 5 to 11 got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday. Pfizer’s pediatric dose of the vaccine was approved last week, making more than 280,000 Iowa kids eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

IDPH chart

“There are some, I think, frustrations we’re hearing that parents weren’t able to get the vaccine where they would normally go to get the vaccine and I think it’s just a matter of timing,” he says. “We’re still taking that as positive news that parents are excited about getting their kids vaccinated and looking for that vaccine very quickly.”

Officials say Iowa received 99,000 pediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its first shipment, and 24,000 more have been ordered. Some major pharmacy chains were able to order thousands of additional doses on their own.

The number of Covid patients hospitalized in Iowa and the number of Iowans testing positive for the virus has increased since last week. By the middle of this week, state officials had confirmed 7166 Iowans have died of Covid since the pandemic began.

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – After major flooding in 2019, a small western Iowa town is making progress toward building a protective flood barrier, with construction of a berm scheduled to start in the spring. Hornick Mayor Scott Mitchell says the Woodbury County town is putting the finishing touches on its plan to prevent future flooding.

“For me, it truly isn’t going to sink in until we start moving dirt,” Mitchell says. “Then I can say we’re to that point where we know it’s going to be built and we’ve climbed all them hills and have made it through all the things that have made it difficult through the way.” The town has been discussing the construction of a berm since 1996, but only received the two-point-one million dollars needed to fund the project through the 2019 Flood Recovery Fund.

Mitchell hopes to see construction complete by the fall of next year. Hornick was inundated by the West Fork of the Little Sioux River nearly three years ago.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Some rural E-M-S directors are looking toward a new state law to help train more volunteer medical responders and keep them on the job. The law allows counties to declare E-M-S an essential service like police or fire and collect taxes to pay for it. Julie Scadden is the ambulance service director for Dysart in east-central Iowa. Scadden says her department is depending on fundraisers and Medicare fees from transporting patients.

“We can’t rely on it from year to year because you just don’t know,” Scadden says. “With COVID, Dysart as an example, we dropped 46-percent of our transport during 2020 and so our revenue dropped 46-percent.” About 80-percent of the medical responders in Dysart are volunteers. Scadden says the program was already shorthanded before seven people stopped volunteering last year over concerns they could be exposed to the coronavirus.

“That, I think, is one of our biggest struggles, trying to get the volunteers to come back,” she says, “and because workforce issues for all jobs, regardless of whether it’s EMS or not, are just really tough for everybody right now.” Scadden says local taxes could help rural programs cover the cost of training and equipment. She says Dysart is in the early stages of organizing an emergency E-M-S resolution. The law requires approval from county supervisors and at least 60-percent of voters. Scadden made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “River to River.”

(reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines police now say the shooting that left a 15-year-old dead was part of an attempted robbery. Police say their investigation has determined the teen who was shot Sunday had a gun and another 15-year-old with a knife was helping him try to rob a 21-year-old man. The man had a gun and shot the teen and he later died. The other 15-year-old is charged with first-degree robbery. Police say they have recovered a gun and are still trying to determine how the three people who have not yet been identified got together.

(Radio Iowa) –  An outdoor Veterans Day service was held early this (Thursday) morning at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery where more than six-thousand Iowa veterans are buried.

Iowa National Guard chaplain Lucas Murphy delivered an opening prayer.

As flags flapped in the brisk wind, taps was played to conclude the service.

More than 700 veterans were buried at the cemetery in 2020.