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News and resources regarding COVID-19

SPM News 4.2.20: IA School Extended, Tri-State C-19 Update, Record Unemployment and More

Associated Press

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued an order requiring all schools and non-essential businesses to stay closed through the end of April.

School district will need to come with a plan for educating students or they will be required to make up some of the lost days in class.

Reynolds says she continue to evaluate the situation to see if schools will be closed for the rest of the school year.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, state Department of Education director Ann Lebo said schools will be required to submit their plans for continuous learning for the second part of the month by April 10.

“We encourage schools to work as quickly as possible on their plans, which may include the delivery of content through online learning paper, packets of assignments, or both.”

A spokesperson for Sioux City Community Schools says the district will release a statement surrounding this new development on Friday.    

Iowa officials say they’re using a regional point scale to determine COVID-19 restrictions.

State health officials said they’ve broken down the state into six regions. 

And they’re looking at factors such as age, long term care facility outbreaks and cases per one hundred thousand people over 14 days when they make decisions to issue restrictions.

“It allows us to have some flexibility to continue to not only address the supply chain, but to make sure that those essential workers that are on the line, know that they're appreciated and feel comfortable continuing to come to work,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.

Currently Iowa’s regions are all ranked between five and seven.

A ten is needed for the governor to issue a shelter in place order, according to documents obtained by the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Thirty-eight states have issued shelter in place orders..

The Iowa Department of Public Health is reporting 66 more Iowans have tested positive for the coronavirus and two more people have died. 

There are three more cases in Woodbury County and one in Clay.

As of Thursday morning, that brings the total number of positive cases in Iowa to 614. There have been 8,054 negative tests reported.

Also, Plymouth County saw its first case not reflected in the current numbers.

Eleven Iowans have now died because of complications of COVID-19.

South Dakota has 165 confirmed cases with four more in Siouxland.

Yankton County now has 10 positive cases and Union County three.

And, the governor of Nebraska ordered schools to remain closed to students through May 31 as officials reported that the state's COVID-19 death toll has risen to five.

Students have been taking their lessons at home via online classes since schools began closing last month.

Health officials report that the latest COVID-19 fatality was a Madison County woman in her 70s who had underlying health conditions.

The state's total number of confirmed cases has risen to 214. Nearly 3,600 people have tested negative.

The number of Iowa workers losing their jobs is rising as the coronavirus outbreak continues.

According to Iowa Workforce Development more than 58 thousand people filed for unemployment insurance last week.

That puts the state over 100 thousand filings over the last two weeks.

Iowa State University economist David Swenson says that far outpaces unemployment during the Great Recession.

“Iowa’s unemployment peaked in 2010 and that was 47,000 unemployed persons, so this is more than twice as much.”

Swenson says the total number of people who have lost jobs is likely even larger because not all workers apply for unemployment assistance.

Nebraska saw another record-setting surge in unemployment claims last week as the new coronavirus forced more businesses to close and lay off workers. The U.S. Department of Labor says Nebraska officials received 24,572 unemployment claims during the week that ended March 29.

A 17-year-old boy accused of killing a 16-year-old in western Iowa is seeking prosecution as a juvenile. Monona County court records say the boy's attorney filed a motion Wednesday to transfer the case to juvenile court. The boy is charged with first-degree murder in the January shooting death of Joseph Hopkins in Mapleton. The Associated Press generally doesn't name. A hearing on the request is scheduled for June 1.