ABCM starts rollout of COVID-19 vaccine

The New Year rang in with a spike of COVID-19 activity in the county as long term while area long-term care facilities worked to inoculate their staff and residents against the disease.

On December 29, the Dumont Wellness Center and Maple Manor Village in Aplington became the first of ABCM's 31 Iowa locations to receive the vaccine from CVS Pharmacy.

“Very early in the process, we partnered with CVS/Omincare for vaccines to be administered via the Pharmacy Provider Vaccination Program as they already service several of our locations for pharmacy and consulting services,” said Alexa Mayner, ABCM Corporation's Chief Operating Officer.

“The earliest the Pharmacy Provider Vaccination Program could begin administering vaccines in the state of Iowa was yesterday [December 28th, 2020], with the pharmacy determining when each clinic is scheduled, so we are thrilled to have two ABCM locations scheduled with clinics yesterday and several more scheduled for this week and next,” said Jessica Sunstrom, ABCM Corporation Pharmacy Consultant. “The vaccine administered to all our ABCM locations via the Pharmacy Provider Vaccination Program, including Aplington and Dumont, will be the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which consists of two doses given three weeks apart.”

ABCM has several other clinics coming up for their facilities, with Hampton expecting to receive the vaccine in the next couple weeks.

As of Monday, January 4, a total of 923 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the county, increasing the county total from the week prior by 53. This spike in new cases reverses the downward trend seen over the last several weeks, more than doubling the number of new cases from the week before.

The majority of the new cases reported are largely made up of the middle-aged and younger populations, with only eight new cases among the 61-80 age group and no new cases among those over 80.

Of the total positive cases, Franklin County Public Health is reporting that 78 are elderly (age 81+); 178 have been older adults (61-80); 240 have been middle aged (41-60); 313 have been young adults (18-34); and 109 have been children.

With 767 cases considered recovered, there are currently 139 known active cases in the county, a moderate increase as we ring in the New Year.

Fortunately, the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Franklin County remains at 17 this week, where it has remained since the state changed how deaths are reported last month.

In Franklin County, 4,198 individuals have been tested at some point during the pandemic, with a total of 13,146 tests being performed on Franklin County residents. In the last 14 days, 13.6% of individuals tested have been positive for the virus, a significant increase over the last week.

At Franklin County's long term care facilities, the Rehabilitation Center of Hampton is reporting no current cases among its staff or residents and one new onset of COVID-19 symptoms among its staff.

At the Sheffield Care Center, no cases are being reported among staff or residents and they hope that the vaccine will be making its way to them in the next couple weeks.