Articles Tagged: COVID vaccine

As the federal public health emergency ends, the Eastern Iowa Health Center is shifting gears by launching a multilingual ad campaign to reach underserved populations in need of COVID-19 vaccinations and updated booster shots.

The bill would prohibit the state’s labor commissioner from enforcing a federal occupational health and safety regulation.

Although just 39 percent of Americans 65 and older have had both the initial COVID vaccine series plus an updated bivalent booster against the omicron strain, new University of Iowa-involved research shows “significant protection” from that bivalent shot among those older adults.

“The world has changed a lot in the last two and a half years, and the ways that we're trying to protect health care workers, and society as a whole, are different, too,” said study co-principal investigator Nicholas Mohr, UI professor of emergency medicine, anesthesia and epidemiology.

Recap of news from across the state

Some Republicans want the mandate eliminated via the annual defense budget bill.

State Appeal Board denies claims from 52 Fort Madison inmates who said they had various symptoms from being administered six times the proper dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

The new booster shots are approved for anyone 12 and older who has already had their first vaccine series, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have been 5,768 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the past seven days, just down from 5,924 the week before, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

News this week that Americans now have a fourth COVID-19 vaccine option – one closer to more traditional vaccines used to combat flu, for example – came about thanks, in part, to University of Iowa researchers and Iowans willing to take the experimental shot.

New COVID-19 case counts has risen for the second week in a row in Iowa, a week after the state saw a dramatic spike in seven-day infections. Hospitalizations are also on the rise, prompting local health care officials to urge residents to wear masks and practice other mitigation strategies.

After four weeks of stable case counts, the number of new COVID-19 cases jumped 30 percent in Iowa in the past week compared to the week before. Statewide hospitalizations also increased, according to new state and federal coronavirus data released Wednesday.

New COVID-19 cases in Iowa continued their slow decline, falling to 3,980 new cases in the past seven days. As of this week, the state has tallied 800,176 total coronavirus infections since March 2020.

The COVID-19 vaccination effort was underway for Iowa’s youngest children this past week after federal health officials approved coronavirus shots for those aged 6 months to 5 years.

Starting Friday, Iowans will see reduced unemployment benefits. Child care providers will see relaxed regulations and third-party food delivery services will face fines for using a restaurant’s logo or menu without permission.