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Iowa Department of Public Health Resigns; COVID Cases Spike In Iowa

  304 News

Iowa Department of Public Health Spokesperson Amy McCoy resigned today.

McCoy was a legislative liaison for the department who started handling COVID-19 related media requests at the start of the pandemic. 

She became the main spokesperson in July when longtime communications director Polly Carver-Kimm was let go. Carver-Kimm has sued the state for her termination.  Carver-Kim says she was forced out for fulfilling journalists’ public information requests. The litigation is pending.  The Department of Human Services says McCoy has accepted a job outside of state government. 

Officials say a vote-counting mistake has changed the standing of a southeast Iowa congressional race. Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks had been leading the open U.S. House race over Democrat Rita Hart by 282 votes out of more than 393,000 that were cast. However, officials say today that Hart now leads the race by 162 votes. 

There have been a large number of coronavirus cases reported in Iowa this week. In Woodbury County today, 121 new cases have been reported and no new deaths.  There have been 8154 cases in the county and 102 deaths since the pandemic began.  The county has a 14-day positivity rate of 20.9 percent. 

State public health officials reported 3,533 new confirmed cases today, and 14 more deaths. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals reached a new high of 912.

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