Iowa may have to throw out thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - Iowa has tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses that are set to expire in the next two months as the demand for vaccines has fallen.

The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa Department of Public Health has 38,730 vaccine doses that expire by the end of July and another 178,651 doses that expire at the end of August unless they are injected by then. Any expired doses would need to be discarded.

Iowa’s demand for COVID-19 vaccine doses has fallen in recent weeks since peaking at 51,000 a day in April. The state only administered about 23,000 in the past week combined.

Hospital leaders have said more than 90% of Iowans hospitalized for COVID-19 recently have been unvaccinated.