Holy crap. Well, as promised Friday, Gov. Reynolds announced her updated restrictions today and I’ve gotta say, they go waaaay further than I expected her to go even in my darkest nightmares this soon. So, let me explain what her announcement does before I get to the numbers.
Last Friday, Reynolds announced she would allow non-urgent surgeries to resume (despite confirming that Iowa medical facilities are still struggling with a lack of sufficient PPE), and also allowing farmers markets to open (with restrictions). She also stated she would make an announcement on future closure orders today as her old one would expire this Thursday. She hinted that she might open parts of the state that had not been hard hit with the virus.
My personal thought was that she might ease restrictions on a couple dozen counties in western Iowa somewhat, as for example there are six or seven counties in NW IA that haven’t reported a single confirmed case yet.
Instead, today, she announced that 77 Counties (out of Iowa’s 99) will begin to reopen Friday. And not just a few businesses like barber shops. No, restaurants and malls can even reopen. So, let’s take a look at what’s going on, per the Des Moines Register:
- Restaurants can open at 50% of their normal operating capacity. Restaurants cannot seat more than six people at a table, and all tables must be at least six feet apart. Restaurants cannot have buffets or other self-serve items.
- Malls, fitness centers, libraries and retail stores can also open at 50% of their legal occupancy capacity, which is determined by fire code. Mall operators must keep play areas and other common seating areas, such as food courts, closed.
- Race tracks, other than those conducting horse or dog races, can reopen as long as they do not permit spectators.
- Social, community, recreational and leisure sporting events are limited to 10 people or fewer.
Not mentioned in the above DMR list is churches, which are also being allowed to reopen provided they, too, maintain social distancing.
Why does this bother me when Reynolds is putting such restrictions on businesses, such as restaurants only being allowed at 50% capacity and requiring tables to be 6 feet apart? After all, that’s social distancing, right?
Well, there’s research out of China that shows that air currents from air conditioning may have contributed to superspreader event at a restaurant in Wuhan. In that case one asymptomatic individual not only infected five other people at their own table, but four others at nearby tables. Now, true, there were 81 other people in the restaurant (patrons and staff) that did NOT get infected. But that’s still 10% of the people in the restaurant becoming infected by one individual. Color me skeptical that Gov. Reynolds’ reopening strategy is the way to go this soon, especially when we still know so little about exactly how this virus spreads and to what extent previous illness gives immunity.
The 22 counties still under lockdown (until May 15, at least), as you might expect, pretty much encompass the counties with Iowa’s major cities or their suburbs:
The Des Moines Register does note that some of the counties Reynolds is easing restriction on have seen recent spikes in cases, such as Winneshiek County which added 12 new cases yesterday, doubling the known cases in the county. This sort of flies in the face of Reynolds statement today that the reopening counties were selected on the basis that they either 1) had no new confirmed cases for at least 14 days, or 2) had shown a steady decline in cases over 14 days. Now, I’ll admit I didn’t major in math in college, but going from 12 to 24 cases in 24 hours does not meet MY personal definition of “steady decline in cases over 14 days.” I guess I skipped taking Republican Mathematics 101 when I took my General Education courses during my undergrad days or something.
Sigh. I though we’d have at least another week or two before she kicked the doors open. I thought she’d be smart enough to take a “wait and see” stance on Georgia and Texas, to see what happened in those early-reopening states, as well as giving the state more time to get more testing sites established. Hell, even waiting until Monday would’ve been something. Ok. Well, let’s move on to some numbers for now, ok?
- 349 new confirmed cases today and 9 new deaths reported since yesterday, bringing state totals to 5,868 and 127, respectively. It’s of interest to me how the state can be increasing it’s known cases by five percent or more daily and have been doubling it’s confirmed cases every 7-8 days for a couple of weeks at least and yet reopening is seen as the way to go right now.
- You’ll be able to go to a restaurant or the mall in 77 counties on Friday, but guess what? The Iowa Legislature has decided that, gosh darn it, it just isn’t essential enough to meet yet, and so they’ve extended their suspension of activities until May 15th.
- In light of Gov. Reynolds’ announcement of soon-to-be eased restrictions in nearby counties, Iowa City issued a press release urging residents to continue to stay at home and only travel for essential needs and that traveling to other counties was not advised to prevent spread of the virus.
- You may recall I’ve talked about an Iowa-centric model of the coronavirus pandemic. At first, it had appeared that it was in the works and would be available a couple of weeks ago, only for it to turn out that that news had only involved the signing of the contract agreement and delivery of data by the state. Well, now the modeling is done and the product has been delivered to the state. However, the state has not yet released the results of the model to the public yet, saying that it is still under review. U of I is doing this as a three-phase project — one phase critiquing the IHME model, one phase with the new Iowa modeling, and a third phase will be to further refine the model with new data. So far the first 2 phases have been completed. The Des Moines Register has requested copies of the reports from the first 2 phases.
- Starting today, Iowa based grocery store chain Hy Vee will now require employees to wear a face mask while at work. The chain has been issuing face masks to employees over the past couple of weeks.
- Perry School District is discontinuing it’s free lunch distribution program for students until further notice, citing heightened concerns over COVID-19 spread in the community. While the district has no confirmed cases among it’s employees, Perry is home to a TYson meat processing plant that was closed for a day last week for additional cleaning after some employees were confirmed to have tested positive for the virus. Tyson did not disclose how many employees tested positive or what their disposition was. As many as 500 Tyson employees may have been exposed at the Perry plant.
- Elkader-based business Fire Farm Lighting, which makes custom lighting for hotels and restaurants, has repurposed some of its equipment to make personal protective equipment including face masks they have redesigned. The new design can be put on as a hat, which reduces the need to touch the face to put it on or remove it. The company can produce about 1,000 face masks per day. Staff are also working on a redesign for intubation enclosures that would allow them to be stored flat.
- After 20 and 30% increases in passenger traffic during January and February this year over last year, the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids saw a 44.4% decrease in usage in March due to the shutdown. However, the airport did still see a 6.6% increase in cargo shipping.
- Today Iowa Worforce Development announced clarification of unemployment guidelines, saying that employees that have been temporarily laid off during the shutdown that refuse to return to work will be denied unemployment benefits unless they provide a valid excuse for doing so. Valid excuses include the employee or member of their household testing positive for COVID-19, if complications of COVID-19 have left them unable to perform job duties, or if they lack transportation to work or childcare due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Stay safe, folks. ‘Til next time!
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