Monday update by Allamakee County Public Health reveals two positive COVID-19 cases this past week
Following the first two weeks of July that combined for a double-digit increase in confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 - with 15 new cases reported from July 1-13, Allamakee County was originally reported by the State of Iowa as having just one new case confirmed during this past week, July 14-20, on the State’s daily website update at www.coronavirus.iowa.gov.
However, a late Monday, July 20 update from the Allamakee County Public Health Department reported notification of another new case being confirmed that day. Prior to that Monday, July 20 update by Allamakee County Public Health, the single new confirmed case for the previous week was reported Thursday, July 16 and was a midpoint blemish between four days prior and four days following where no new confirmed cases had been reported for Allamakee County.
That single new case for the past week, now coupled with the late Monday update new case, leaves the Allamakee County case total at 140 cases as of Monday, July 20, with a total of 129 test results also being reported during this same past week’s timeframe. Of those 140 total cases, Allamakee County Public Health reports that the Iowa Department of Public Health lists just six of those as being active as of Monday, July 20.
Despite another lower trend in local cases for the week, Veterans Memorial Hospital and Allamakee County Public Health continue to remind local residents and visitors of the importance of following the basic mitigation measures put in place early on when the COVID-19 pandemic first arrived, including hand washing and social distancing.
Those guidelines and testing qualifications are further outlined on Page 4 in this week’s edition of The Standard.
For more information, contact Allamakee County Public Health at 563-568-5660 or Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3431.
IOWA GOVERNOR DIRECTS SCHOOLS TO IN-PERSON LEARNING
In a Friday, July 17 press conference, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a new proclamation continuing the Public Health Disaster Emergency originally established in March of this year and taking a number of actions to advance Iowa’s Return to Learn strategy as a new school year approaches. The proclamation directs all state agencies, school districts and local governments to focus on preparing to safely welcome back students and teachers to school in-person in the fall.
The proclamation also provides clarity for when a school may move to primarily remote learning, allowing that status change when:
• Parents select remote learning as the best option for their family;
• The Iowa Department of Education in consultation with the Iowa Department of Public Health approves a temporary move to online learning for an entire building or district in response to public health conditions;
• A school, in consultation with state and local public health officials, determines that individual students or classrooms must be temporarily moved to online learning; or
• A school chooses to temporarily move to online learning because of severe weather instead of taking a snow day.
As a final measure, the proclamation also provides regulatory relief to address the state’s education workforce, including removing limitations on how often and long substitute teachers can teach and expanding the pool of Iowans who are eligible to serve as substitute teachers. The Governor’s proclamation can be read online in its entirety at https://governor.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Public%20Health%....
