Coronavirus vaccine should be arriving in Winneshiek County in the next week or two

Winneshiek County Health Director Krista Vanden Brink says her agency is getting a clearer picture about the handling of coronavirus vaccines locally.  Vanden Brink says the first vaccines should arrive in Winneshiek County "in the next week or two."

It will be the national pharmacy firms of Walgreen's and CVS which will be in charge of shipping the vaccines—not local pharmacies.  Vanden Brink says she has talked with local pharmacies about the national rules involving vaccine shipments.

She says national health experts have said the first shipments of vaccine will be given locally to health workers and to residents of long-term care facilities.  Two long-term care facilities in Winneshiek County are currently working to contain outbreaks at their facility, with one facility reporting no new outbreaks in the past 14 days, but the other one having what Vanden Brink calls "a ways to go yet."

One of the vaccines which might be shipped to Winneshiek County could be the Pfizer vaccine, which requires storage at very low temperatures.  Vanden Brink says that won't be a problem, however—if the Pfizer vaccine is shipped, there will be dry ice shipped as well.

Details still remain to be finalized about any vaccine distribution, but Vanden Brink says, "We are getting there."