On Monday, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a Proclamation of Disaster Emergency in response to five new presumptive positive cases of Covid-19, the Coronavirus, bringing Iowa’s new total to eight. Of these, all but one are in Johnson County in eastern Iowa and are individuals who had recently returned from an Egyptian cruise. The other case is in Pottawattamie County and involves a worker at a Council Bluffs restaurant who had recently traveled to California. This proclamation activates the response and recovery aspects of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s Iowa Emergency Response Plan. State agencies will be authorized to utilize resources including personnel, equipment and facilities to perform activities necessary to prevent, contain and mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 virus. In response to these Iowa cases, St. Anthony Regional Hospital is recommending that only healthy adult individuals visit patients at the hospital or residents in the nursing home. Anyone who exhibits symptoms of an upper respiratory illness is encouraged to contact their healthcare provider for further instruction and individuals with a fever should not go to work or school. St. Anthony President and CEO, Ed Smith, says they have been proactively preparing for the likelihood that Covid-19 would reach Iowa and our region. Now that these presumptive cases have been identified, Smith says it is more important than ever to practice safe habits, such as frequent hand washing, staying home when ill, covering coughs and sneezes and cleaning surfaces in the home that are routinely touched such as light switches, countertops and door knobs. State status reports and details on a hotline developed for Iowans with questions can be found below.
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Status reporting: https://idph.iowa.gov/Emerging-Health-Issues/Novel-Coronavirus?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
24/7 Hotline: dial 211
