On Monday, Iowa’s governor announced she plans to ease some restrictions on businesses in smaller counties in the state starting on Friday. Woodbury County isn’t included because of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. As SPM’s Sheila Brummer reports metro-area mayors want action on all sides of the river.
Mayors in five local cities put out a statement on Monday for all public health organizations to increase the level of transparency in reporting COVID-19 after a surge of new cases.
“We are getting disjointed information from health agencies in the tri-state area.”
That’s Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott. He along with the mayors of Sergeant Bluff, South Sioux, Dakota City and North Sioux asked state and local health departments to provide more information about specific locations of outbreaks or community spread.
Siouxland District Health says state law prohibits the release of that type of information.
“We don’t seem to know where the cases are coming from. Do we need to be careful if one of our neighbors worked in a plant with positive cases?”
The Mayors call on local businesses to take responsibility for any outbreaks and provide accurate information to employee and the public.
“If there’s an outbreak we don’t hear about it until it’s cleaned up. I applaud Interbake for shutting down when they had a case.”
Mayor Scott says the metro area is at the epicenter of a national outbreak.
“Just because of our numbers here only show Iowa it doesn’t show the extent of our problem in the tri-state area.”
Cases in Woodbury and Dakota county recently jumped with more than 600 confirmed cases each, plus a total of two deaths.
Local health officials say more testing also led to the higher numbers.
The mayors also urge the governors of Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska to use caution in lifting restrictions across the tri-state region.
“You shut us down probably earlier than you needed to. Now don’t open us up earlier because we have yet to peak.”
Mayor Scott says businesses and citizens need to continue to do what they can to reduce the spread of the virus.
The first confirmed case in Dakota County appeared on Sunday, April 12th, for Woodbury County it was March 21st.
Siouxland Regional Statement on the Recent Increase in Positive Cases of COVID-19 in Siouxland
Credit Siouxland Regional Statement on the Recent Increase in Positive Cases of COVID-19 in Siouxland
Statement from the Director of Siouxland District Health:
From: Kevin Grieme, Director-Siouxland District Health Department
Good Afternoon All,
There have been a number of communications and questions raised related to the authorization of the release of information related to COVID-19 cases posed by many of you. The following is a summary that I have compiled that relates to this issue:
Release of Information:
When reading the Iowa Code and State of Iowa Auditor’s opinion when it refers to local public health department or local board of health that is the description for Siouxland District Health Department and Siouxland District Board of Health.
Siouxland District Health Department’s jurisdiction is for Woodbury County. Information we have is only for Woodbury County residents.
Release of information for businesses is under the authority of the state epidemiologist or the state director of public health. This is not a privilege that is granted to local public health agencies.
Siouxland District Health Department follows the language that is included in Iowa Code Chapter 22. This focuses on the aspect of an individual’s health information.
In consulting with Joshua Widman, Woodbury Asst. County Attorney he referenced Iowa Code Section 139A.3:
2. a. Any person who, acting reasonably and in good faith, files a report, releases information, or otherwise cooperates with an investigation under this chapter is immune from any liability, civil or criminal, which might otherwise be incurred or imposed for such action.
b. A report or other information provided to or maintained by the department, a local board, or a local department, which identifies a person infected with or exposed to a reportable or other disease or health condition, is confidential and shall not be accessible to the public.
c. Notwithstanding paragraph “b”, information contained in the report may be reported in public health records in a manner which prevents the identification of any person or business named in the report. If information contained in the report concerns a business, information disclosing the identity of the business may be released to the public when the state epidemiologist or the director of public health determines such a release of information necessary for the protection of the health of the public.
3. A health care provider or public, private, or hospital clinical laboratory shall provide the department, local board, or local department with all information reasonably necessary to conduct an investigation pursuant to this chapter upon request of the department, local board, or local department. The department may also subpoena records, reports, and any other evidence necessary to conduct an investigation pursuant to this chapter from other persons, facilities, and entities pursuant to rules adopted by the department.
Joshua clarified this with ““As you can see from the highlighted portion, information regarding identity of a business may only be released to the public “when the state epidemiologist or the director of public health determine such a release of information necessary for the protection of the health of the public.” The director of public health referenced in the statute is the state director of public health. Thus my understanding is that identification of a business would have to come from the state level.””
On Sunday, April 26, 2020 State of Iowa Auditor-Rob Sands issued an opinion to further clarify this:
Iowa law can bar disclosure of the names of businesses involved in a public health report. However, Iowa Code 139A.3 gives the state epidemiologist and/or the Iowa Department of Public Health the authority to make those business names public if they determine “such a release of information necessary for the protection of the health of the public.”
I understand your frustration with this situation, but a local public health agency is not permitted to release the name of an individual or business related to investigations of infectious diseases. Siouxland District Health Department has been diligently communicating to the State of Iowa requesting them to provide additional information, and improve transparency, related to the increase in cases we are experiencing.
Daily Reporting Changes:
We have also received questions related to the changes in daily reporting that we do and not including the numbers for gender and age category. We were made aware that a local media outlet linked this change to Iowa Code Chapter 22 in the production of one of their stories. This is not a confidentiality or privacy issue. I wanted to clarify that the decision to no longer include this information in our daily updates, is related to the availability of staff time at SDHD. With the increase of confirmed cases we have had to focus our available time on conducting the follow up case investigations. This involves an interview with each confirmed case. Each of these interviews can take from 30 minutes to over an hour.
The Disease reporting system that is provided by the Iowa Department of Public Health is set up to produce a notification to local public health and for data from the interview to update the case information be entered and then submitted. It does not allow local public health the functionality to pull summary data reports. To generate this report, we would have to do a manual opening of each disease report file, compile the information and then close the file. This would be a manual process. This would require around 3 hours of work for 100 cases. With this information being provided by the Iowa Department of Public Health website, we decided to no longer include this. Our other option was to delay our reporting until after we had completed this but would have resulted in providing updates until after we had completed our case investigations. This would result in us reporting after the daily state updates are available.
Thanks for your time and commitment to keeping the residents informed and aware of what they can do as individuals to help slow the spread of this disease.
Kevin Grieme
Health Director, Siouxland District Health Department
Statement from Dakota County Emergency Management:
I wanted to touch base with all of you this afternoon to address communication regarding the COVID-19 situation in Dakota County.
We have a new health director that started 2 weeks ago, during this pandemic, an overwhelming time for all. She reached out to me and asked if I could help distribute press releases to the media and I am happy to be of assistance.
However, this current situation is a public health incident and not an emergency managers event. My position is the Director of Emergency Management for Dakota County. Therefore any questions on the current COVID-19 incident will need to be directed to the Dakota County Health Department.
I appreciate the relationships I have built with all of you and hope to continue those relationships moving forward.
Thank you for all your hard work and be safe out there.
Deanna Hagberg, Director
Dakota County Emergency Management