Allamakee County Public Health urging local residents to be patient and refrain from calling as local plan for distributing limited COVID-19 vaccine is figured out

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 for individuals to add their name to for vaccinations in Allamakee County at this point in time.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has issued an updated Phase 1B statement and tier categories that will include people aged 65 years and older. However, vaccine remains in short supply, and this means not everyone in Phase 1B will be able to get vaccinated right away.

Vaccine distribution will be prioritized due to vaccine shortage and not being able to vaccinate everyone at once. Planning is ongoing at the local level in regard to how to best distribute the vaccine within the local community following the phases and tiers established by IDPH and based on the limited amount of vaccine being allocated to Allamakee County at this time.

Allamakee County Public Health officials are asking local residents to continue to be patient as they are still waiting to learn the amount of vaccine that will be allocated to Allamakee County and will then finalize vaccination clinic schedules and locations accordingly.

Allamakee County Public Health officials are pleading with local residents to not call the County Public Health office or Veterans Memorial Hospital to inquire about this information as there is not enough staffing to keep up with the volume of phone calls being received. Local residents are urged to continue to follow local media outlets such as the newspaper, radio, social media and veteransmemorialhospital.com for updated information as it becomes available.