Cedar Rapids healthcare providers have announced they are temporally reducing elective surgeries. Both Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health–St. Luke’s are taking part. They say it is an effort to preserve staffing needs as the hospitals address an increase in COVID-19 admissions. Both hospitals are reducing surgical cases that require a hospital stay after surgery. This will remain in place until next Friday, November 20. Both hospitals will also refrain from scheduling elective procedures in the immediate future that require an overnight, post-operative bed. This approach is to ensure that the hospitals can maintain sufficient bed, staffing, and PPE capacity. Patients affected by this change will be contacted by their surgeon. The hospitals note that they are continuing to accept and treat patients and remind the community that health emergencies should not wait, and you should seek care when needed.
New unemployment filings in Iowa are up again, but continuing claims continue to fall. Iowa Workforce Development is reporting 5,576 initial jobless claims for the first week of November…a 21% increase from the previous week. But the number of continuing unemployment filings dropped 3.6%, down to 35,660.
State Sen. Janet Petersen says she will not seek reelection as Senate minority leader. Peterson was the first woman to be elected to lead Senate Democrats when she won the post in 2017. She says she was asked by several members of her caucus to continue as leader but decided against it. Senate Democrats retained 18 seats in last week’s election, and Petersen herself won a third four-year term. Republicans hold a 32-18 majority in the chamber. Senate Democrats will meet Sunday to select caucus leaders for the upcoming legislative session scheduled to begin Jan. 11.
First District Congresswoman-elect Ashley Hinson is participating in orientation meetings for incoming members of Congress virtually…she learned Wednesday night she had tested positive for the coronavirus. The Marion Republican says she feels great and is quarantining at her home. She plans to speak with reporters on a conference call today.
Meanwhile, a Democrat trailing by 40 votes in the nation’s closest congressional race says her campaign will request a full recount. Rita Hart’s campaign made the request yesterday, noting that the race against Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks has been marked by two separate tabulation errors that, when discovered, flipped the lead between back and forth in recent days. Today was the deadline for campaigns to request recounts; there are 24 counties in the southeast and south central Iowa district. The winner will succeed retiring Democrat Rep. Dave Loebsack.
The coronavirus continues to spread broadly across Iowa and state officials say nearly 10% of the state’s schools have sought a waiver to temporarily educate students remotely instead of in classrooms. Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo says 43 districts and nonpublic schools are operating with temporary waivers from the state requirement that they be in class at least 50% of the time. A waiver was granted to the Cedar Rapids school district yesterday; they are scheduled to return to a form of in-person learning on November 30, just after Thanksgiving weekend.
A Polk County jury has convicted a Des Moines man of first-degree murder in the killing of his mother. 33-year-old Christopher Thompson was convicted in the death of 50-year-old Paula Thompson, whose body was found March 13. Officers were called to a Des Moines home for a welfare check and found the woman dead. Police later determined she had been beaten to death with a crowbar days earlier after arguing with her son. Christopher Thompson later turned himself in to police. He is being held in the Polk County Jail until his sentencing on Dec. 18, when he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Sen. Charles Grassley told reporters yesterday he sees no harm in Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden having access to the same national security briefings provided to President Donald Trump. Grassley said if Biden does become president, there might be a benefit for him getting those briefings now. The New Hartford Republican said wait until the Electoral College votes are tabulated to see who takes office on Jan. 20. When asked about voter fraud allegations made by the Trump campaign, Grassley said he had seen some evidence from certain news outlets, but that it has not been widespread enough yet to change the tentative results of the election.
Governor Kim Reynolds announced yesterday the state will add more contact tracers and buy more tests for its Test Iowa program as COVID-19 cases increase in the state. The governor said the state will buy another 360,000 tests for around $3.4 million. The state has around 140,000 tests left, which should last until December 11. The original contract with NOMI Health, which is based in Utah, gave the state 540,000 tests for $25 million. In its latest report, the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommended Iowa increase its testing capacity so it could test people weekly in 95 of Iowa’s 99 counties that are designed in the red zone. Gov. Reynolds also announced Test Iowa is expanding its capacity by adding 200 more appointments to its daily schedule. The five state-operated drive-through sites can now test a combined 4,040 Iowans Monday through Friday.
The Linn County Public Health Department has updated its definition of ‘close contact’, mirroring the national Center for Disease Control’s close contact recommendations for COVID-19. Now, a close contact is defined as being within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in a 24-hour period, starting from 2 days before illness onset or testing; living in the same household as a person diagnosed with COVID-19; direct physical contact with an infected person including hugging or kissing; and being sneezed or coughed on by a COVID-19 infected individual. A close contact includes all of the above, regardless of mask use. Close contacts will be expected to quarantine for 14 days after the last exposure.
Morningside College in Sioux City will become Morningside University next year. The school announced the change yesterday in a news conference on campus. Morningside President John Reynders says the name change “has the potential to open new doors and new hearts within the global marketplace.” Reynders says the main difference between a college and university is that a university generally offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. He said Morningside has offered graduate degrees since the late 1960s and now actually serves more graduate students than undergraduates. Officials say the new name takes effect June 1.
