PLEASE DO NOT CALL! Public Health vaccine plea to the community

Allamakee County Public Health is asking for the public’s help in refraining from calling their office about COVID-19 vaccine shots. There is NO sign-up list to add your name to. The Iowa Department of Public Health has issued an updated Phase 1B statement and tier categories that will include people aged 65 years and older (See the Front Page of this week's Standard). However, vaccine remains in short supply. This means not everyone in Phase 1B will be able to get vaccine right away. Vaccine distribution will be prioritized due to vaccine shortage and not being able to vaccinate everyone at once. Planning is ongoing on how to best distribute the vaccine to our community following the phases and tiers. Please continue to be patient as ACPH is still waiting to learn the amount of vaccine that is allocated to our county and will then finalize vaccination clinic schedules and locations. Again, please do NOT call the County Public Health office to inquire about this information as there is not enough staffing to keep up with the volume of phone calls being received. Please continue to follow local media outlets such as the newspaper, radio, social media and veteransmemorialhospital.com for updated information.