DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A strong winter storm has begun making its way across the upper Midwest, creating treacherous travel conditions and spurring warnings urging people to stay off the roads. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and other states. By Tuesday morning, snow was so heavy in western Nebraska that Interstates 80 and 76 were closed in both directions after several accidents.

Authorities in Omaha, Nebraska, and in the Kansas City area also reported several accidents blamed on slippery roads.

Mills County Public Health (MCPH) has received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine and has begun administering it. MCPH began administering the first round of vaccines to front-line direct care healthcare workers. MCPH Administrator Julie Lynes says “We have made contact with most of the individuals in the county that are eligible to receive the vaccine and started administering it last week. We want to ensure that all of our direct care healthcare workers understand they are eligible to receive the vaccine and would encourage them to contact us to schedule an appointment.”

MCPH can be contacted by calling (712) 527-9699.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors will meet for the last time…in 2020, that is. Their meeting takes place 9-a.m. Wed., Dec. 30th, and will be conducted electronically from the Adair County Courtroom via dial-in, at (605)-313 6157 (Access Code 526272#).  On the agenda, is Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, who will discuss a Jail Administrator new hire. County Auditor Mandy Berg will report on a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to cybersecurity services, and renewal of the FY22 County health, dental and vision plans.

County Engineer Nick Kaufmann will make available for the Supervisors to sign, a Right of Way contract for a grading project along the County Line (G-61), and will present his regular report on maintenance and activities.

(Radio Iowa) – Teams of Walgreens, C-V-S and Community Pharmacy employees began deploying Covid vaccinations Monday to the people who live and work in Iowa nursing homes, but it will be some time before the tens of thousands of shots are administered in all of Iowa’s long term care settings. Kelly Garcia is acting director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. She says federal officials are allowing the teams to give shots to people living in adjacent assisted living facilities as well. “This adjustment provides some significant flexibility for operations and for logistics, especially when you think about the way that facilities are structured,” she says. “They often have long term care facilities co-located in one property with an assisted living functon.”

While the State of Iowa is getting fewer doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines than originally expected this month, the effort to begin vaccinating residents of nursing homes is beginning this week as scheduled. A second dose will be required in late January. The federal government signed contracts with the three pharmacy companies to be responsible for the vaccinations at long term care facilities — so the doses are transported to each facility and the shots are given by pharmacy employees. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says deploying the vaccine is a monumental effort and there are bound to be bumps in the road.

“Just as we saw months ago when we launched large scale testing through Test Iowa, it takes time to ramp up and for things to run smoothly. We’ll likely experience the same as we begin broadening the scope of vaccinations across the state of Iowa as well,” Reynolds says. “I think we owe it to each other to assume good intent in these efforts and to give each other some grace while we navigate yet another new phase of our recovery.”

The state’s coronavirus tracking website Tuesday morning showed there were 114 Covid outbreaks in the state’s 423 nursing homes — and more than 45-hundred residents and staff have active infections. Thirty percent of the Iowans who’ve died of Covid this year were residents of a long term care facility.

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — Two people are hospitalized after fire broke out an apartment complex in Waukee. The Des Moines Register reports that the fire happened Monday. Two people suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to a hospital. Deputy Fire Chief Tomme Tysdal says seven of the eight apartments were occupied and the families were evacuated. The cause of the fire is under investigation.