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Iowa prisons to resume visitation for vaccinated inmates

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Corrections has announced it will resume in-person visitation in early July for those prisoners who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reports that the department announced the decision Friday, as more than 58 percent of those incarcerated in Iowa’s prisons were reported fully vaccinated and 62 percent reported as having had one shot.

Iowa’s prisons and jails banned visitors in early March 2020 as the outbreak of the coronavirus hit the US.

Iowa's department spokesman Cord Overton says the decision was made after prisons officials spoke to state health officials and looked at what other state prison systems were doing as more people become vaccinated.

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