COVID-19 UpdateCopyrighted
May 18, 2020
City of Dubuque Presentation(s) # 1.
ITEM TITLE: COVID-19 Update
SUMMARY: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist for the City of
Dubuque, will provide an update on the COVI D-19
pandemic and response activities.
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION:
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
Dubuque
All -America City
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TO: Mike Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist
SUBJECT: COVID-19 update
DATE: May 18, 2020
CURRENT INFORMATION
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
• The Dubuque County Public Health Incident Management team consisting of City
of Dubuque Health Services Department (Mary Rose Corrigan) Dubuque County
Health Department, (Patrice Lambert) VNA (Stacey Killian) and the Dubuque
County Emergency Management Agency (Tom Berger), along with both hospitals
continue in full activation. We are coordinating our response efforts in
conjunction with the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Governor's
Office, and with guidance from CDC via weekly webinars and direct contact with
our regional epidemiologist.
• 134 new cases were added to Dubuque County's total since I last gave a report
to the City Council on May 4, 2020. As of May 18, Dubuque County has 286
positive COVID-19 cases. To date, we have a total of 10 deaths in Dubuque
County. Currently, Dubuque County has 16 COVID-19 patients who are
hospitalized. Also, 3761 people have been tested in Dubuque County with 3475
negative results. The number of tests administered has more than doubled since
May 4, 2020. 7.6% of the cases tested have been positive. 130 people or about
45% of Dubuque County positive cases have recovered to date.
• The State has 15,084 cases, up from 9703 positive cases on May 4, 2020. Many
new cases have been from meat processing and long- term care facilities
identified by State strike team testing due to outbreaks. A total of 363 Iowans
have died. In all there have been 104,567 tests administered in Iowa. Currently,
382 cases are hospitalized. 7,732 or (51%) of Iowans have recovered.
• Friday, May 15, 2020 Gov. Reynolds proclamation restricting many businesses
was lifted on the 22 counties where it remained in place (after these restrictions
were lifted in the rest of the state on May 8, 2020.) Essentially most things are
now open or operating except for mass gatherings and community events, and
sporting and recreations activities with more than 10 people. The Governor has
said she will lift or reevaluate these restrictions prior to their expiration on May
27, 2020. As the testing numbers ramp up, the State Hygienic Lab has
completed testing validation on the new methodology used for Testlowa. This
means that test results will be available at a faster, more -timely rate.
• Community Testing: While Dubuque County has not been a Testlowa or IDPH
strike teams site, over the past several weeks we requested and received viral
test kits from the state for targeted testing, focusing on individuals identified
through public health contact tracing along with long term care facility staff.
During the week of May 4-8, 335 exposed individuals identified through contact
tracing were tested at a community site and 1335 long-term care were individuals
were tested either at their facility or at the community site. No long-term care
outbreaks were identified. Through targeted testing at the community site, 8.8%
were positive. This rate of positivity can be attributed to the known risk factors for
the individuals tested. Since we have unused tests available from the targeted
testing, we are offering testing to congregate living facility staff, law enforcement
and one work site this week. The organizations receiving testing must provide
their own medical director or physician to order the tests. Crescent Community
Health center will also continue to test those with known exposures identified
through contact tracing.
I want to thank all the local health care workers and others who assisted with the
community testing, who are employees of MercyOne, Unity Point -Finley, Grand River
Medical Group, Medical Associates and Crescent Community Health Center. The
majority of the costs incurred from the testing will be paid by funds from the Dubuque
County Board of Health that were allocated for community COVID-19 response by the
Dubuque County Board of Supervisors. Also, a thank you to City staff from the Health,
Engineering and Police Departments for their work in planning and staffing the testing
initiative.
As we face the dilemma of how much to test for COVID-19, consideration must include
financial costs to our local governments and ultimately our citizens along with the fact
that a test demonstrates if you are positive or more importantly negative for just that
point in time. We have to weigh that with the likely probability that this pandemic may
continue for several more months, even into next year. The SARS CoV-2 virus will not
stop spreading until 60-70% of the population has been infected or until there is an
effective vaccine or at the very least, an effective antiviral medication that could reduce
the infectious period. Currently, of Iowa's 99 counties, Dubuque County has the 7th
highest number of people tested (3,761), the 14th highest number of positive cases
(286), and the 9th highest number of deaths (10).
As Dubuque completes these targeted testing initiatives with tests provided by the
IDPH, the Dubuque County Public Health Incident Management Team would like to
continue this new model to provide for ongoing targeted testing based on our
epidemiological profile locally in Dubuque County. Every community has unique
aspects. The Dubuque workforce, demographics and organizations within our
community as well as our public health and healthcare workforce capacity, all influence
not only the testing capability within our community but also where we should prioritize
testing, and use our resources to gain the most information and benefit to the
community.
Even though we may not currently be a Testlowa site, we continue to encourage more
Dubuque County residents to complete the Testlowa assessment. This will not only
assist the State in determining a need for broad community testing in Dubuque, but also
the assessments provide valuable data to the Governor and the IDPH on the risk level
of our residents and the need for future testing. Therefore, we encourage residents to
continue to take the on-line Testlowa assessment. Of the state's 432,302 completed,
Dubuque County residents have completed 11,730 Testlowa assessments (12%.)
• Contact tracing: As testing is increasing around the state due to Testlowa and
the various strike teams at worksite facilities and long- term care facilities, IDPH
has offered to do the contact tracing for local communities. Due to the increased
number of tests being conducted in Dubuque County, VNA has turned contact
tracing over to the IDPH since prior to the additional testing initiatives, VNA felt
they were already at capacity in terms of their ability to keep up with the contact
tracing on the number of positive cases being identified. Contact tracing involves
more than one initial contact with the positive case and those who were exposed
by that person. It also involves ongoing monitoring of positive cases and
providing releases when symptoms have subsided, and appropriate isolation
duration has been met. With IDPH conducting the contact tracing, VNA staff will
be able to provide strategic public health services specifically for Dubuque
County, including trending the data to find pockets of outbreaks, and provide
support and guidance in those areas that we currently don't have time for, and
also to provide more support to the businesses and facilities with positive cases,
for both prevention and mitigation. Having all the data, but not the aggressive
contract tracing deadlines set by IDPH, puts VNA in a unique position to help
guide the community. This week that will include conducting target testing.
• Long Term Care status: Long term care facilities continue meeting weekly with
each other (with MR Corrigan attending) and provide input to the Public Health
Incident Management Team on needs, planning and capacity. One long term
care facility in Dubuque County is experiencing an outbreak and we are
monitoring their needs on a daily basis. Long term care facilities also receive
guidance from the local hospitals and clinics.
• Housing needs, and special isolation needs, along with other human service
needs are addressed by the Human Resources section of our Incident
Management Team, and are managed by Human Rights Director, Kelly Larson,
and Housing and Community Development Director, Alexis Steger. Temporary
isolation housing is available for individuals not able to secure appropriate
isolation in their own residences. As more residents are taking advantage of this
necessary service, the City is seeking assistance for the management of the four
established shelters. Other needs, such as food, continues to be provided to a
variety of individuals via delivery, and through distribution by several community -
based organizations.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) requests, donations, sourcing products —a
process for local organizations to obtain personal protective equipment and other
needs are available through the Dubuque County Emergency Management
Agency (EMA). Director Tom Berger uses locally sourced and State Strategic
National Stockpile (SNS) assets to supply those requests. In addition to PPE,
staffing, testing and other needs must be requested through the county EMA.
The EMA is meeting all requests, with the exception to disinfecting wipes.
• Brain Health/ well- being: May is Mental Health (Brain Health) awareness month.
The Brain Health Task Force, facilitated by the Community Foundation of Greater
Dubuque, reports that clients are coming into offices for pandemic related issues
looking for support with brain health issues. Brain Health Task Force members
are providing resources and contact information. The Children's Brain Health
Working Group continues to meet. The services offered though the Mental
Health/Disability Services of the East Central Region (MHDS-ECR), which
includes Dubuque County, are aligning temporary policies with other entitlements
and not recommending additional documentation. Federal stimulus checks will
not impact eligibility for regional funding and are not considered income. In
addition to the mobile crisis units and other response services provided by the
region, a "Warm Line" - a telephone line staffed by individuals with lived
experience who provide nonjudgmental, nondirective support to an individual
who is experiencing a personal crisis is available daily from 2:00-7:00 p.m. at
844-775-9276. Brain Health issues will last longer than the quarantine period as
well as anxiety about returning to work, office spaces, retail stores begins to
ramp up etc. The schools are making plans now for how to support students
when they return in the fall, keeping in mind brain health issues.
• Joint Information System is led by PIO Randy Gehl. The JIS has coordinated
responses to requests from the TH and other news media and provided daily
COVID-19 specific media/news releases 6 days per week. I am giving regular
updates at every city council meeting, and on other days, Facebook live updates.
Since May 1, 2020, 10 COVID-19 Update Videos have been streamed live on
Facebook and CityChannel Dubuque, posted to the City's YouTube channel, and
links shared in daily updates:
Facebook: Total views = 27,225 (average of 2,722 views per video)
YouTube: Total views = 1,033 (average of 103 views per video)
Looking ahead
• As the Governor's proclamations continue to be modified and restrictions are
lifted across Iowa, social distancing and mitigation strategies must continue.
Epidemiological data, particularly the "epi-curve" will continue to be monitored,
along with hospital and health care capacity, worksite outbreaks, recovery rate
etc- all on a local, state level and national level. Our Public Health Incident
Management Team is in regular contact with Dubuque's health care providers
and provides for ongoing monitoring of community's readiness and ability to test.
Last week, the CDC alerted public health and health care providers of a new
emerging syndrome in Children associated with COVID-19. It started with reports
from the UK and has continued with reports from New York City and New York
state. The IDPH has designated this as a reportable condition in order to provide
monitoring of this new syndrome in our state. As the virus continues to infect
different sectors of the population, new issues will emerge, and different risks
may be identified.
What you can do now
• Continue to stay home as much as possible. Dubuque County has not yet
peaked in the number of COVID-19 cases.
• Encourage citizens to take the Testlowa assessment
• Limit trips to grocery stores and for other necessities — for example, once a week
at the most
• Utilize curbside pick-up, carry -out and delivery for food and other purchases
• Consider your own personal risk factors before venturing to retail stores and
places of business or for personal or recreational services. Risks to consider
include age, underlying and/or chronic health conditions — especially respiratory
and cardiac conditions, diabetes and if you smoke, are obese or live with
someone who has any of these risk factors.
• Continue to practice social distancing
• Strictly follow self -isolation practices. If you are not sure whether you have been
exposed, start self -isolating anyway.
• Follow the 3 C's - (clean, cover, contain) and emphasize handwashing- which is
ideal. When handwashing is not available, use hand sanitizer.
• Encourage citizens to continue to seek and utilize factual information from the
city of Dubuque, IDPH and CDC websites and postings, being mindful that this is
an ever changing and emerging pandemic.
• Do research before traveling- so you are totally prepared for other communities'
risk, and potential illness.