As Greene County continues to administer COVID-19 vaccines, they are also waiting to hear when more will be available, as well as who qualifies to receive the limited doses.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf tells Raccoon Valley Radio they are currently giving the Moderna vaccine to the Phase 1A group, which are frontline healthcare workers and nursing and long term care residents. She talks about the criteria that is used by the Iowa Infectious Disease Advisory Council, who determines the different phase groups to receive the vaccine.

“We have to look at the risk of exposure, the frequency of exposure, and the duration of exposure to COVID positive patients. So those are really what we have to look at to determine who goes first.”

While Wolf is unsure of who will be included for the 1B and 1C phases, she notes they can’t proceed until they get approval from the Infectious Disease Advisory Council. She is also unsure about when the county could see another shipment of the vaccine, but Wolf explains how the process will work once there is a steady stream of vaccines coming into Iowa.

“It sounds like eventually we’ll have like a weekly system where we’ll receive notice of available doses and then we can reallocate those doses to our provider partners as we move farther so we can reach more people.”

Greene County received its first shipment of 300 vaccines late last month.