As Iowa health officials confirmed Friday the state’s deadliest day during the coronavirus pandemic so far, Governor Kim Reynolds announced that elective surgeries can resume Monday and farmers’ markets can reopen. Additional guidelines for non-essential businesses were expected to be announced on Monday.
An additional 521 cases were confirmed Friday, bringing Iowa’s total number of cases to 4,445. The state’s death toll also rose to 107, with 11 new deaths reported. The numbers reflect a continuation of rising case numbers in the state, with more than 100 new cases reported every day over the last week. The state’s previous record for its case increase occurred Tuesday, as 482 Iowans tested positive for the virus.
During a news briefing Friday, Reynolds said the spike in cases was due to increased testing capacity throughout the state. More essential workers have been tested in recent days, with 15 percent of the state’s cases reported among health care workers and 30 percent related to manufacturing workers, according to Reynolds.
“We are going to see our case counts continue to increase,” Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter with the Iowa Department of Public Health said. “We’re testing more Iowans than we ever have before.”
Despite the latest spike in COVID-19 case numbers and deaths, Reynolds said the state was ready to begin discussions on reopening its economy. “This is our first step of many to reopening Iowa and getting life and business back to normal as soon as possible,” she said.
Reynolds is among the few governors who have not issued statewide stay-at-home orders, despite recommendations from Dr. Anthony Fauci and other members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The step Reynolds announced Friday includes allowing health care providers across the state to begin elective surgeries starting Monday—so long as the hospitals and clinics that resume those surgeries have dependable supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) that are not reliant upon the state’s supply, which Reynolds said remained under a shortage order.
Farmers’ markets would also be allowed to reopen with social distancing guidelines in place under Friday’s new guidelines. Reynolds said the vendors able to resume operations at their market booths would be primarily restricted to those selling produce and that law enforcement officials would be monitoring the markets to ensure six-foot social distancing requirements were being followed, with ticketing possible as a last resort. “I don’t anticipate any problems,” she said of Iowans following the guidelines.
After announcing the state’s step toward reopening its economy with a promise to deliver additional guidelines for businesses and residents Monday, Reynolds addressed questions about the speed of her office’s decision. Under the federal government’s recommendations, state leaders are encouraged to observe a two-week decline in cases before relaxing stay-at-home orders. In addition to reporting Iowa’s largest spike in cases and death totals Friday, Reynolds also confirmed an outbreak of cases at a long-term care facility in Polk County, bringing the state’s total number of outbreaks at such facilities to 13.
“There’s a lot of different variables that we’ll be looking at, and we’ll take a very targeted approach,” Reynolds said of the state’s latest guidelines. “Because of the way that we can monitor [the spread of the virus] in a comprehensive manner, we can start to open things up very responsibly and on a limited basis,” she said, adding that officials would continue watching local and statewide data to address hot spots as they appeared.
“You’re not going to see a statewide release on some of these areas that we’re going to be opening up,” Reynolds said. “They will be somewhat targeted.”
