COVID-19 Update 6 1 20Copyrighted
June 1, 2020
City of Dubuque Presentation(s) # 2.
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:
TO: Mike Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist
SUBJECT: COVID-19 update
DATE: June 1, 2020
CURRENT INFORMATION
• 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.
• 212 new cases were added to Dubuque County’s total since I last gave a report
to the City Council on May 18, 2020. As of June 1, 2020 Dubuque County has
346 positive COVID-19 cases. To date, we have a total of 19 deaths in Dubuque
County. Currently, Dubuque County has 5 COVID-19 patients who are
hospitalized. Hospitalizations reported on May 18 were 16. Also, 5515 people
have been tested in Dubuque County with 5169 negative results. 6.2% of the
cases tested have been positive. 186 people or about 54% of Dubuque County
positive cases have recovered to date.
• The State has 19,698 cases, up from 15,084 positive cases on May 18, 2020.
Many new cases continue to be from meat processing, worksite and long- term
care facilities identified by State strike team testing due to outbreaks. A total of
549 Iowans have died. In all there have been 159,515 tests administered in
Iowa. Currently, 382 cases are hospitalized. 11,399 or (58%) of Iowans have
recovered.
• I have received questions regarding, “what does recovered mean?”
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
Recovered numbers come through the contact tracing process. At the end of
the isolation period for + COVID 19 patients, they are contacted by the IDPH
contact tracing staff to assess their symptoms- to see if:
1. they have been fever free for at least 3 days (72 hrs) without the use of
fever reducing medications
2. they’re symptoms have improved (ie when cough or shortness of breath
has improved)
3. at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared
Persons who test PCR (viral testing) positive for COVID-19 but do not experience
symptoms should self-isolate until:
✓ At least 10 days have passed since the date of the first positive test
AND
✓ They continue to have no symptoms (no cough or shortness of
breath) since the test.
So if these criteria are met, a person is considered “recovered”
Also note that persons who test positive for COVID-19 antibodies through
serologic testing do not have to isolate unless:
they also test positive for COVID-19 with viral testing or are sick with COVID-19
symptoms or they are symptomatic and have not yet met the criteria I just
described.
• As of today, June 1, 2020 Gov. Reynolds proclamations restricting and or closing
many businesses have all been lifted, including restaurants, retail stores, gyms,
bars and sports and recreational and other mass gatherings. Most of these have
a 50% occupancy or 50% of normal business limit, with public health measures
and social distancing in place. Essentially, public health measures include, extra
attention to cleaning and personal hygienic practices including handwashing,
physical distancing and providing barriers or separation. The Incident
Management team, through staff from the City Health Services Department, will
assist groups and organizations with planning for events, leagues, sporting
events, celebrations etc for the summer and into the future. To date we have
provided guidance to a number of groups including schools for graduation, youth
sports leagues, and various summer camps. We are also going to be working
with the Dubuque County Fair and 4 H. Restrictions remaining until June 17th
include: theaters, senior citizen centers and adult daycare facilities, and indoor
playgrounds. Currently swimming pools are allowed to be open for lap swimming
and lessons, along with training for life guards. The Governor has not yet
released additional swimming pool restrictions.
• Community Testing: the public health incident management team is in
discussions with the Governor’s office for establishing a TestIowa site. Testiowa
requires local communities to supply site and staffing costs. The cost for the
initial targeted testing for Dubuque County the first week of May was
approximately $30,000 +. Of testIowa’s 590,420 assessments Dubuque County
residents have completed 15,000 TestIowa assessments.
Over the past several weeks we requested and received viral test kits from the
IDPH for targeted testing, focusing on individuals identified through public health
contact tracing along with long term care facility staff, congregate living facilities,
including some high risk facilities, shelters, law enforcement, and essential
volunteers. A total of 906 individuals have been tested via public health,
primarily at the VNA, in addition to the 1670 individuals that were tested the first
week in May.
Concerns have been raised regarding the timing of receiving results fo r testiowa
and other test initiatives, including those targeted efforts in Dubuque. As more
testing occurs throughout the state and the nation, labs and equipment will
continue to be stressed, which affects the analysis turn-around time.
Currently, of Iowa’s 99 counties, Dubuque County has the 7th highest number of people
tested (5,515), the 15th highest number of positive cases (346), and the 9th highest
number of deaths (19).
• Contact tracing: since VNA has turned contact tracing over to the IDPH, VNA
staff has been 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 for groups, worksites and facilities with positive
cases, for both prevention and mitigation along with the isolation shelter. Having
all the data, but not the aggressive contract tracing deadlines set by IDPH, allows
VNA to help guide the community and assist the PH IMT as needed. The VNA
has also coordinated and provided the targeted testing provided using test kits
from the IDPH.
• Long Term Care facility status: The Long term care coalition continues meeting
weekly and provides for communication with the Public Health Incident
Management Team on needs, planning and capacity. One long term care facility
in Dubuque County continues to experience an outbreak and we are monitoring
their needs on a daily basis. Long term care facilities have received new
guidance from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding
ongoing testing and surveillance of staff and residents, criteria for relaxing certain
restrictions and mitigating the risk of resurgence, visitation and service
considerations and restoration of survey activities. The IDPH will be providing
guidance on the staff and resident testing component of the recommendations
this week.
• 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 and being utilized for individuals not able to secure
appropriate isolation in their own residences. City staff is working with the
Dubuque County Board of Supervisors on an agreement for cost sharing and
management of the shelter in order to allow county residents to utilize the
housing isolation service. 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.
• PIO Randy Gehl continues to coordinate responses to COVID inquiries from the
media and provides daily COVID-19 specific media/news releases at least 6 days
per week and sometimes more depending on what’s happening. I continue to
provide regular updates at every city council meeting, and on other days,
Facebook live updates. Today the Dubuque County Board of Health voted to
utilize messaging in the Mask of Wellness campaign which originated in Iowa
City. In all of our community messaging we are stressing wearing masks and the
other public health measures to prevent COVID-19 spread
Looking ahead
• Next week at the COVID-19 work session, I will report in more detail on some of
these items, along with the outcome of discussions for testIowa with the
Governor’s office
What you can do now
• Continue to stay home as much as possible and practice physical and social
distancing.
• Encourage citizens to take the TestIowa 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.
• 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.
• For community groups, plan ahead for events and cancelations.