The University of Iowa reported nine new student and employee self-reported COVID-19 cases since Dec. 16. 

Since the beginning of the semester, 2,799 student COVID-19 cases and 327 employee cases have been self-reported. 

Johnson County Public Health recorded a 9 percent positivity rate  in the county in the last 14 days. There have been 601 cases of the virus in Johnson County in the past 14 days. 

In a video from the COVID-19 campus-wide update, Patricia Winokur, executive dean of the Carver College of Medicine said the general public will have access to the COVID-19 vaccine in late March and April.

 The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices along with the state of Iowa will be deciding what the next groups are that will be vaccinated after the first essential groups, she said. 

“We’re going to have to continue to be very careful with social distancing, masks, handwashing for quite some time. No vaccine is perfect, so we know that 5 percent of people that were in the Pfizer trial did still get COVID-19,” Winokur said. 

The UI said a COVID-19 Campus Update will not be published on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, university holidays.