Allamakee County receives medical supplies delivered by Iowa National Guard
Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Snitker reports that Allamakee County received a delivery of medical supplies from the State of Iowa Saturday afternoon, March 28 in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, with that delivery being made by the Iowa National Guard. Snitker said the delivered medical supplies consisted mainly of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks, surgical masks, disposable gloves and face shields, along with other medical items, cleaning supplies and hand sanitizers. None of the delivery involved medicinal items.
Snitker further advised that the delivered items have been and will continue to be distributed to area healthcare facilities and providers, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel, law enforcement and other County/City agencies. The delivery consisted of items recently ordered by officials of those various agencies, with that order being based on the criteria of items needed in comparison to current inventory amounts within each agency.
“These shipments are not based on a county’s COVID-19 positive results or deaths, population, number of hospitals, etc., but on current needs/inventory status for those items,” Snitker further explained. “The ordering system is designed to try and meet these needs before an agency runs out. This is not a first-come, first-serve basis process and you are limited on how much you can order to help maintain a flow throughout the state over the coming weeks. I am working with all of these various agencies in the county to determine their needs and submitting these requests to the State of Iowa as needed weekly. The State of Iowa is doing its best to fill as able based on what they are able to acquire through various sources as the Governor mentioned (in her Sunday, March 29 press conference).”
Snitker said that, per guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), organizations and agencies are utilizing conservation practices to the best of their ability to conserve these items in light of a current PPE shortage across the nation. Organizations are also asked to try and acquire their own PPE through other sources, and area agencies have benefited from local generosity in receiving a variety of donated items. “A huge thank you to those people and organizations,” Snitker said of those who have reached out with donations of any kind.
