(Radio Iowa) – The state has selected Microsoft to develop a website for Iowans statewide to schedule vaccinations and Governor Reynolds says it should be up and running in two weeks.  “The biggest problem of all of this has been the amount of vaccine that we receive,” Reynolds says. “…I don’t care what kind of system you had in place. That’s just not enough vaccines to really do what we needed to do.”

Reynolds describes the central website for scheduling Covid shots as a “front door” for Iowans. A call center for Iowans who don’t use the internet is still under development. “We’re going to continue to look for ways that we can streamline it, make it more efficient,” Reynolds says, “where we can help counties that need it, where we can set up mass clinics.” State officials are evaluating which counties are not able to dispense at least 80 percent of their weekly allocation of vaccine doses.

Starting next week, any county that cannot meet that threshhold will see their share of doses sent elsewhere.  “We’ve tried to take the infrastructure that we have and make that available,” Reynolds says, “and some of the problem is, really, a lot of our systems are just so antiquated and they’re siloed and they’re not operating in the capacity that we need them to do.” Federal officials are increasing each state’s allotment by five percent. Reynolds says that means about 49-thousand total doses will be delivered to Iowa next week.

“As we have more vaccines become available, as we have more providers be a part of the mix, we need to continue to look for ways that we can streamline it,” Reynolds says, “and so that’s what we’re doing.” In addition, the governor says Walgreens has agreed to schedule appointments for 10-thousand unused doses for Iowans yet this week. Walgreens and C-V-S should be done giving second doses of the Covid vaccine to residents and staff of Iowa nursing homes by February 21st.

Once completed, nearly 20-thousand doses of vaccine will be available to other Iowans each week.