COVID-19 clinics planned for back to school

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Public Health Director Shelly Van Dorin is hopeful about getting more people vaccinated for COVID-19 to protect against the Delta variant, which has been identified in Iowa and is expected to hit the unvaccinated the hardest.

Van Dorin is looking to vaccinate children before they return to school … if the use of the Moderna vaccine is approved for children under 18.

The county is planning to offer vaccine clinics in schools and universities in Henry County for those at an eligible age when back-to-school time comes in August.

To do so, Van Dorin is hoping for an emergency use of the Moderna vaccine to come through for younger ages. Currently only ages 18 and older can receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

If emergency authorization is given by the FDA, the county plans on offering vaccine clinics for schools during school registration.

With current county numbers in a good spot, according to Van Dorin, officials are worried that with the new variant that those that are unvaccinated are at higher risk for hospitalization and death if they get sick.

With county vaccination numbers still less than 50%, it is hard for experts to tell if the new variant will hit Iowa hard.

Currently the state of Iowa is at 2% positivity rate over seven days. Henry County is at 4% with five positive cases in the last seven days.

In the eastern Iowa region there are nine patients in hospitals with COVID-19 and four people on ventilators.

Henry County has had 37 deaths from the virus.

The state is changing contact tracing protocols for COVID-19. They are advising counties to not closely track the spread of COVID-19 and instead use protocols akin to flu tracing, where counties only track large outbreaks.

“We will still be tracing contacts in long-term care homes and big outbreaks that happen in the county. They are trying to get us back to focusing on other public health stuff,” VanDorin said.