Polk County makes monkeypox vaccine available to certain residents

A limited number of monkeypox vaccines are being made available this week to gay or bisexual men and transgender adults in Polk County. They are considered the highest risk for contracting the virus.

Why it matters: Vaccines have been in short supply and, until now, there was no public sign up option to get one.

Catch up fast: In late July, Iowa only had enough vaccines for 300 people.

• Only people who had been exposed to monkeypox could get them.

Driving the news: Federal health officials announced on July 28 that they were allocating another 786,000 doses of the vaccines.

• Iowa will get just under 2,600 with almost 1,450 shipped as of last week.

State of play: There's been at least 11 confirmed monkeypox cases in Iowa and the majority are in the central region of the state.

• The Polk County Health Department has about 400 doses. Appointments can be scheduled through Friday, spokesperson Nola Aigner Davis told Axios.