The number of Iowa hospital patients who’ve tested positive for COVID has dropped 20 percent since last Friday. State health officials report 741 patients in an Iowa hospital today have COVID — 55 percent of them were admitted specifically for treatment of the virus.
Locally as of Monday, Winnebago County has 65 cases, Worth has 35, Hancock County has 54, and Kossuth County has 36. Wright County has 49 cases.
Governor Kim Reynolds says the coronavirus is similar to the flu and other infectious illnesses and state agencies will start managing COVID-19 as part of normal daily business. The Public Health Disaster Proclamation the governor first issued in March of 2020 will end on February 15th and the Iowa Department of Public Health will take down its online vaccine finder and no longer publish the number of Iowa nursing homes with COVID outbreaks. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst from Windsor Heights says this is an interesting time to make this move.
Konfrst says statewide data about the pandemic helps Iowans make good decisions.
Konfrst made her comments during taping of Iowa Press.
Kelly Garcia, the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says similar agencies in more than half of states are making similar changes to manage COVID as they do other contagious viruses.
