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This week, Iowa opened the next phase for vaccine distribution. Phase 1B includes frontline essential workers as well as Iowans 65 and older. But vaccine demand far exceeds supply, and has made rollout challenging, especially in the state’s many rural areas. For more than seven years, the Girls State Training School in Toledo has sat mostly empty and unused. But on Monday, the school campus’ main building is buzzing on the first day of Tama County’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Rooms that are still labeled for their previous tenants -- social workers, psychologists, administrators -- are now filled with health care workers, mostly volunteers, and elderly residents of the rural county of about 18,000.

Minnesotans who have watched the bar scene across the border from the Twin Cities in Hudson, Wisconsin remain relatively lively during parts of the COVID-19 pandemic when their own state’s watering holes were closed might be wondering: Why are the COVID-19 death rates in Minnesota and Wisconsin so similar? As of Thursday, Wisconsin had recorded 6,549 deaths due to COVID-19, compared to 6,319 deaths in Minnesota. When you adjust that for the size of the two states’ populations (Wisconsin is slightly larger), the rates work out to 112 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents in both states.

Israel has managed to administer at least one coronavirus vaccine to 60 out of every 100 of its residents as of Wednesday, according to figures compiled by the research and data analysis website Our World in Data. On a per capita basis, Israel's coronavirus vaccination performance is the best in the world. Other standout nations include the United Arab Emirates – which reported administering vaccines to 36 out of every 100 residents – the United Kingdom, Bahrain and the U.S., which were reporting vaccination rates of approximately 15.5, 10.3 and 10.1 per 100 residents, respectively, on Wednesday.

Louisiana will allow people who are 65 and older to access COVID-19 vaccines starting Monday as the state sees more doses and some slowing appointments, officials said Thursday, a move that will bring the number of people eligible for the shots to more than 1 million of the state’s roughly 4.6 million residents. Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the expansion at a press conference Thursday, saying an increase in doses made the move possible. Up until now, people age 70 and older, a list of health workers as well as residents and staff of long-term care facilities like nursing homes have been able to get the shots.

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