IOWA, USA — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds updated the state on COVID-19 vaccine distribution and the state of the coronavirus pandemic in a press briefing Wednesday.
Reynolds began the press conference March 10, 2021 extending "thoughts and prayers" to the families of the more than 5,600 Iowans who have died of COVID-19 in the full year since the state saw its first cases.
The governor said 13% of all Iowans are fully vaccinated, ranking 27th in the country.
More than 90% of Iowa's long term care residents will have completed their with second COVID-19 vaccine dose by end of the month, Reynolds said. The state is set to receive at least 4,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as "minimal amounts" are being allocated.
Watch the full press conference here:
Renyolds announced she would be signing Executive Order 8, establishing a taskforce chaired by Emily Schmitt, general counsel of Sukup Manufacturing Co., addressing "Iowa's childcare crisis".
"Access to high quality childcare in the state of Iowa is certainly an issue that precedes the pandemic, but it was certainly intensified during it," Reynolds said.
Reynolds had no comment on Andrea Sahouri's case, a Des Moines Register journalist who is currently on trial after being arrested while reporting on a civil rights protest last summer. The case is being criticized as an attack on press freedom.
"We'll let the process work," Reynolds stated.
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