CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Joyce Meyer, 85, of Marshalltown, receives a COVID-19 vaccine from a nurse at the McFarland clinic on Thursday. The health care provider began Phase 1B of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Marshall County received a larger shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. This time, the delivery contained 500 doses. Previously, shipments had 300 or 400 doses.

However, Marshall County Public Health Nurse Pat Thompson said 500 doses is still not a lot, and the effort to inoculate first responders, essential workers and senior citizens continues.

On Thursday, the McFarland Clinic Marshalltown Office began administration of Phase 1B of the COVID-19 vaccine. They started with the oldest patients and the first to receive them were Fred, 86, and Joyce Meyer, 85, of Marshalltown.

“We are in our high eighties and we think it is really necessary, we don’t want to get that virus,” Joyce said. “It is the best thing to do because if you ever get COVID you will wish you would have had the vaccine because some people who get it get really sick.”

Fred said he received the vaccine, “Because my grandkids told me to.”

The oldest person on Thursday to receive the vaccine at McFarland was Eldon Brittain, 99, of Marshalltown.

“I respect the medical people,” Brittain said. “I have been through the virus. I hope that the vaccine will help me be in better health.”

Thompson said people who are waiting to receive the vaccines can relax, because health care providers will contact them when their turn arrives. How soon that will be depends on how much vaccine is shipped to Marshall County. Thompson assured everyone who wants to get a vaccine will receive it, but it will take time.

Efforts to get the vaccine to all of the school districts in Marshall County – Marshalltown Community, East Marshall and West Marshall – have begun. The Marshalltown Community School District is preparing to get staff members vaccinated. Superintendent Theron Schutte said nurses in the district, and preschool staff have been vaccinated already.

District Nurse Stacey Tool-Crawford said 40 employees have been inoculated so far. The district has 900 employees, Schutte said, and 82 percent of them are interested in receiving the vaccine.

“In a perfect world, we would get as many vaccinated as soon as possible before Feb. 15,” he said.

On Feb. 16, all students of the district will return to 100 percent in-person learning, bringing an end to the hybrid model which was implemented for the pandemic. Schutte is confident the district will still be able to provide a safe environment as 23 mitigation strategies will be practiced.

“The most challenging will be transportation and social distancing,” he said. “We will have to get creative.”

Tool-Crawford said as the vaccines are made available to the district, they will be given.

“Locations are figured out and set. We just need the vaccine,” she said.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.