COVID-19 Update Copyrighted
February 6, 2023
City of Dubuque Presentation(s) # 01.
City Council Meeting
ITEM TITLE: COVID-19 Update
SUM MARY: Public Health Director Mary Rose Corrigan will provide an update on the
COVI D-19 pandemic and response activities.
SUGGESTED
DISPOSITION:
TO: Mike Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Director
SUBJECT: COVID-19 City Council update
DATE: Feb 6, 2023
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Dubuque County Public Health Incident Management (IMT) team consisting of City
of Dubuque Health Services Department (Mary Rose Corrigan) VNA (Stacey Killian),
Dubuque County Health Department (Allie White) and the Dubuque County Emergency
Management Agency (Tom Berger), along with both hospitals continue monitoring the
pandemic and providing guidance. Members of the IMT and community healthcare
partners continue to gradually resume “pre-pandemic” activities. The IMT also consists
of City of Dubuque Health Services Department Environmental Sanitarians Tim Link
and Sydney Moquin who are spending much less time on the pandemic response. The
Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) provides information via Health Alerts and
their website.
CURRENT INFORMATION
Iowa Coronavirus dashboard with case counts and other related COVID -19 data can be
found at
https://hhs.iowa.gov/covid-19-reporting
Case and Vaccination Data Via CDC:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
Vaccination scheduling and access information:
https://www.cityofdubuque.org/2965/COVID-19-Vaccinations
and at https://vaccinefinder.org/
Dubuque VNA
VNA continues to operate the public call center for Dubuque County 7 days/week for
general COVID questions along with quarantine and isolation specifics. To date VNA
has fielded over 48,896 calls/contacts from the community and continues to administer
Health Services Department
City Hall Annex
1300 Main Street
Dubuque, IA 52001
Office (563) 589-4181
Fax (563) 589-4299
TTY (563) 589-4193
health@cityofdubuque.org
www.cityofdubuque.org
vaccines. Along with free vaccinations, VNA distributes home TestIowa COVID test kits
to anyone needing a test, free of charge.
Hospital Capacity Planning
COVID-19 hospitalizations remain stable during December, 2022. In addition to COVID
patients, the hospitals are experiencing significant influenza and respiratory patients.
However, the number of pediatric patients, particularly with RSV, has now reverted to
normal census. The hospitals are no longer reporting the number of COVID -19 patients
to the IMT or the media. However, the IMT meets bi-weekly with hospitals to assess
local capacity, capability and patient load, including patient census for non- COVID-19
illness.
The IMT continues to monitor hospital capacity and capability and communicate
with MercyOne and UnityPoint Finley Hospitals as needed, and they provide patient
census data upon request to the IMT. Hospitals continue to be very busy with a variety
of conditions and illnesses.
Public Information
The City Public Information Office (PIO), in conjunction with the Incident Management
Team (IMT), continues to produce and distribute weekly County COVID updates with
important messages to residents as well as new data on new cases, deaths, and
vaccinations. The PIO office responds to news media requests for interviews and
information and assists the IMT with general messaging/communication needs. The PIO
continues to track multiple metrics for the IMT and update the COVID-19 webpage on
the City website. Videos featuring Public Health Specialist Mary Rose Corrigan are
produced when needed and distributed through all available channels. In addition to
continued marketing of vaccinations, PIO staff are promoting booster doses and clinics
where they are available. PIO services provided by Public Information Officer Randy
Gehl and Mary Rose Corrigan will be billed to Dubuque County based as soon as the
agreement if fully signed and executed with the Board of Health.
COVID- 19 Vaccination
The IMT continues to manage the IDPH vaccine allocations and distribution, primarily
through the VNA.
The uptake of bivalent formulations of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-
BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for use as a single booster dose continues to see low
uptake compared with other booster rollouts .
As of February 3, 2023, 21% of Dubuque County 5 years and older are fully vaccinated
with at least one bi-valent booster dose.
In addition to multiple vaccine providers in Dubuque County, Ongoing walk-in VNA
clinics at 660 Iowa St are available on:
Mondays 3-6 pm-WALK INS: 1/20
Fridays 8-430pm-WALK INS: 2/10, 2/17, 2/24
Testing
Local providers providing COVID-19 tests continue to have adequate test supplies and
availability. Testing providers report less demand for COVID-19 testing. In addition to
isolating when you have COVID symptoms, the Dubuque County Public Health Incident
Management Team encourages residents who are symptomatic for COVID-19, but test
negative with a rapid self-test, to follow-up that test with a Test Iowa PCR test.
Test Iowa test kits are free and available for pick-up at multiple locations in Dubuque
County, for a complete list, visit https://www.testiowa.com/en#find-a-pick-up-site
Currently, the average time for Test Iowa results (email confirmation) after being
received at the lab is 12-24 hours.
Dubuque County in home testIowa pick-up sites include:
https://www.cityofdubuque.org/2940/Local-COVID-19-Testing-Options
Testing options are updated regularly and posted at
https://www.cityofdubuque.org/2940/Local-COVID-19-Testing-Options
The Variants, Cases and Transmission
Omicron and its sub-variants and sub-lineages continue to account for 100% of the
positive COVID tests in Dubuque County this fall. Dubuque County continues in the
“medium” community level and “high” for transmission.
Numerous variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have
been tracked in the United States and globally during this pandemic. The Omicron
variant, like other variants, is made up of a number of lineages and sub lineages. These
lineages are often very similar to each other, but there can be differences that affect the
behavior of the virus.
• CDC is closely tracking a wide range of Omicron sub lineages, and Dubuque
County now has confirmed BQ.1, BQ 1.1, and XBB.1.5. The vaccine helps
prevent severe illness and death from these types, but vaccine effectiveness
varies.
After Action Report
The IMT has contracted with Emergency Preparedness Consulting (EPC) LLC, to
conduct the COVID-19 pandemic after action report (AAR). Dubuque County executed
a contract with the consultant, which will include a separate component to evaluate City
of Dubuque COVID -19 response operations, specifically public education regarding
COVID-19 and municipal service delivery, safe workplace guidance and employee
safety, and Departments Continuity of Operations Plans. The AAR is expected to be
completed in February 2023. Community partners, health care organizations and some
appointed and elected officials will be surveyed and/or interviewed for their input.
Looking ahead
• Orient the newly named Dubuque County Public Health Director, Allie White, to
the IMT and Dubuque County public health preparedness activities.
• Modify the IMT COVID-19 response based on the case transmission, CDC
Community Level and community needs and new vaccine availability.
• COVID-19 After Action Report: finalize including improvement plan and report out
• Continue to offer Bivalent booster vaccines: Create and disseminate vaccinations
promotional materials for vaccination.
• Provide ongoing education and access for COVID -19 testing, vaccination, and
other guidance to all populations, with the assistance of the Equity Immersion
Committee and many community partners.
• Continue community vaccine education and administration as eligibility and
availability changes.
• Implementing and distributing updated guidance from CDC, IHHS.
• Monitor and provide community education on SARS CoV2 variants.
• Provide COVID-19 guidance for special events and activities
• Continue assurance of COVID 19 testing access and in-home kit distribution as
supplies and testing providers are available
• Monitor county transmission rates and community level status to provide up to
date information on masking and other mitigation strategies.
• Currently approximately 20% of my time is devoted to COVID-19
DUBUQUE CITY COUNCIL
COVID-19 UPDATE
Feb 6, 2023
Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Director
Positive Cases -Rolling 7 Day Volume Dubuque County
Mar 1, 2020 -Feb 5, 2023
Positive Cases by Age Group Dubuque County
Jan 5, 2023 -Feb 5, 2023
COVID-19 CASES IDPH DATA
CDC COMMUNITY LEVEL
DUBUQUE CO: LOW
Weekly Metrics Used to Determine the
COVID-19 Community Level
Case Rate per 100,000
population 67.82 83.24
New COVID-19 admissions
per 100,000 population 12.6 9.3
% Staffed inpatient beds in use
by patients with confirmed
COVID-19
4.6%2.9%
Dec 27,
2022
Jan 31,
2023
VACCINATIONS-DUBUQUE COUNTY
% of fully vac >5 yrs with a bivalent booster = 21%
(19.8% Dec 27, 2022) US
7
8
DUBUQUE
COUNTY
COVID-19
VACCINE
ACCESS
•https://www.dubuquecountyiowa.gov/567/COVI
D-19-Vaccinations
•Ongoing walk-in VNA clinics at 660 Iowa St
•Mondays:3-6 pm 2/20
•Fridays:8-4:30 pm 2/10, 2/17, 2/24
•Other dates: walk in if staff is available
•SleevesUp Phone Line: (563) 690-6253
•VNA Phone Line: (563) 556-6200
•FAQ’s for vaccination and children
•https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-
ncov/vaccines/faq-children.htm l
INFLUENZA SURVEILLANCE
IOWA -33% RECEIVED FLU SHOOT
Vaccinating those 60
and older continues to
be a priority
COVID -19 VACCINATIONS
11
REASONS FOR NOT RECEIVING COVID-19 BOOSTER
CDC MMWR Jan 20, 2023
●23% Lack of awareness of eligibility or availability for vaccination
●19% perceived immunity against infection ~ overconfidence in immunity
●68% who had not received the bivalent booster planned to do so. One
month later 28.6% had received the booster dose.
Public Health and Health Care must continue to use evidence-based strategies to
inform persons about booster vaccine recommendations and waning immunity.
Pandemic, Endemic or What?
IS THIS THE END ???
●Federal Public Health and National Emergency Declarations ends
May 11, 2023
●Iowa Health and Human Services (HHS) will end COVID-19 reporting:
date to be determined
●WHO continues public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)
~ acknowledges transition point
14
WHO Pandemic Influenza Risk Management Guidance
CONTINUUM OF PANDEMIC PHASES
QUESTIONS?
Next update: March 20, 2023
Final update?? April 2023
Thank-you