IOWA - Iowa's Infectious Disease Advisory Council is meeting Monday afternoon and could recommend the state's next move in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
The most recent numbers show just 42 percent of the doses provided to Iowa have been used to vaccinate people.
The state is currently in phase 1a of distribution, which calls for health care workers and long-term care centers to receive vaccines.
Only seven million people across the country have received the first dose of the vaccine, far behind the 20 million promised by the end of 2020. It's also less than a third of Americans who qualify for vaccinations under phase 1a.
The state's Iowa's Infectious Disease Advisory Council provides recommendations to the state health department for distributing COVID-19 vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has identified phase 1b recipients for vaccines as non–health care essential workers that are frontline workers.
Those are:
- First responders (e.g., firefighters and police officers)
- Corrections officers
- Food and agricultural workers
- U.S. Postal Service workers
- Manufacturing workers
- Grocery store workers
- Public transit workers
- Those who work in the education sector (teachers and support staff members)
- Child care workers.