DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa has opened coronavirus vaccination to everyone age 16 and older.
The expansion Monday comes as the state deals with increasing spread of the virus. State public health officials reported 68 more deaths on Sunday. There's a delay between a death and the processing of death certificates, so many of those people died weeks earlier.
An Iowa public health spokeswoman says the high number on Sunday reflected a number of year-end reports received by the state. Iowa has seen 5,822 people die of COVID-19.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the state has the 16th-highest overall coronavirus death rate in the nation with 184 deaths per 100,000 since the pandemic began.
