Siouxland District Health reports two more deaths in Woodbury County for a total of 78.
There were 14 more deaths recorded in the state of Iowa and almost 1,200 new cases. The Iowa Department of Public Health says today’s update does include backdated test and death information.
The number of Iowans in the hospital with COVID-19 hit another high today. There are 461 patients statewide, including 72 at Sioux City's two hospitals. That’s the same level reported yesterday.
The Sioux City Community School District reports another decrease in new COVID-19 cases.
This week, a total of a dozen students and staff members tested positive. Last week, there were 26 cases, the week before 32. The district puts out new updates every Friday.
The new cases were spread through eight buildings across the district. One first grade class at Leeds Elementary was put in Emergency Response Virtual Learning. School officials say contact tracing was done in conjunction with Siouxland District Health.
Earlier this week, Sioux City School Board Member Perla Alarcon-Flory, whose family battled the disease says she is pleased with the work the district has been doing to try and keep students and staff members safe. Alarcon-Flory does prefer hybrid learning and so does board member Monique Scarlett. The issue is expected to be discussed again at the next school board meeting on Monday night.
The Siouxland District Health Department also released a weekly trend update that shows two weeks in a row with a slight decrease in the percentage of positive test results and new cases in Woodbury County. That is for the week ending on October 4th.
Yesterday, the health department reported 109 new cases in Woodbury County. That was the highest number since early May when 116 were recorded.
Local health officials say when someone is tested they are expected to quarantine until results of their test returns. If results are positive, people need to isolate for at least 10 days following the start of their symptoms. And, longer if symptoms remain.
The 14-day test positivity rate is up Woodbury County. The current rate is 15.3%, above the 15% threshold for a school district to apply for on-line learning only.
South Dakota continues to struggle as health officials reported an all-time new high for new coronavirus cases, with 772. The Department of Health reports another five people have also died from COVID-19, bringing the state’s death toll to 277 people. The state has seen the nation’s second-highest number of new cases per capita in the last two weeks.
Health officials in the Omaha metro area with a concerning update on hospital capacity. They told TV station KETV just 25 adult ICU beds were available out of a total of 343.
On Monday, experts from Nebraska Medicine said the state was entering a dangerous period during the COVID-19 pandemic as medical providers were seeing a surge of new cases and hospitalizations.
Nebraska recorded seven new deaths and more than 300 new cases of the novel coronavirus.
Tomorrow morning the Woodbury County Democratic Party has organized a memorial for COVID-19 victims.
It takes place at 10 a.m. at the Abe Lincoln Statue entrance to Grandview Park.
Local musician Mike Langley will perform and social distancing and masks expected.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has announced the launch of a program to send up to $580 million in federal coronavirus aid to small businesses, health care providers and non-profit organizations. The Legislature earlier this week offered its support to the plan to spend much of the $1.25 billion the state received to address the coronavirus crisis and the economic fallout. Under the plan, small businesses impacted by the pandemic will be able to apply for grants from a pool of $400 million. Another $115 million will go to health care programs that provide services through Medicaid and other state or federal funding.\ Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says Iowans have set a record for absentee ballots requested in an election. Pate reports 703,768 requests as of Friday. That surpasses the previous high set in 2016 when more than 693,000 Iowans requested absentee ballots. Of the requests just over 365,000 were requested by Democrats and more than 212,000 were from Republicans. Voters registered with no party requested nearly 124,000. Over 96,000 have been returned so far with nearly 60,000 of those from Democratic voters.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says Iowans have set a record for absentee ballots requested in an election. Pate reports 703,768 requests as of Friday. That surpasses the previous high set in 2016 when more than 693,000 Iowans requested absentee ballots. Of the requests just over 365,000 were requested by Democrats and more than 212,000 were from Republicans. Voters registered with no party requested nearly 124,000. Over 96,000 have been returned so far with nearly 60,000 of those from Democratic voters.
Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill provided an update on absentee ballot requests for voters in the November election.
This afternoon there were 17,514 requests with almost 8,300 (8,283) from Democrats and almost 6,900 (6,854) from Republicans. Almost 2,400 (2,377) come from other political parties or no party. In Woodbury 10% more Republicans are requesting absentee than the statewide rate of 30% of the total amount of absentee ballots.
Gill says this isn’t the most absentee ballots requested, but there is still more time to go.
Iowans have until 5 p.m. Oct. 24 to request an absentee ballot. Iowa voters can also cast a ballot in person at their county auditor’s office through Nov. 2.
