Starting on Tuesday, Iowa City will no longer have mask mandates for city buildings or other public spaces. According to a news release, the city is acting based on updated masking guidelines issued on Friday by the CDC. “We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said […]
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Iowa discovers thousands of previously unreported COVID cases, as Republicans push through bill to nix vaccination incentives
The state changed how it provides information about COVID-19 cases and deaths to the public this week, as the Reynolds administration officially stopped treating the pandemic as a public health emergency at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday. Instead of the weekly COVID-19 update the Iowa Department of Public Health used to post to coronavirus.iowa.gov […]
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Gov. Reynolds: COVID-19 is now ‘part of our everyday lives,’ no longer ‘a public health emergency’
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on Thursday her administration will officially stop taking any action that treats “COVID-19 as a public health emergency” at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15. That is when the extension of the state’s Public Health Disaster Emergency Proclamation the governor signed before her announcement expires. The proclamation was first issued on […]
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Appeals court limits scope of preliminary injunction against Iowa’s school mask ban
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that a preliminary injunction stopping the Reynolds administration from enforcing a ban on face masks in Iowa schools is too broad, and should only apply to the 10 school districts named in the lawsuit. The Iowa Department of Education (IDOE) will now be able to enforce […]
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Gov. Reynolds says Iowa will sue to stop federal vaccine requirements; more than 7,000 Iowans have died of COVID, IDPH says
Iowa “will take immediate legal action to challenge” new workplace standards on COVID-19 vaccinations issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Thursday, Gov. Kim Reynolds said. In a written statement after OSHA published the new standards, Reynolds called the effort to increase vaccination rates and protect workers in congregate settings from being exposed […]
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Roughly two out of five COVID-19 deaths in Iowa were preventable, former UI Public Health dean postulates
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported another 117 deaths from COVID-19 in its weekly update on Wednesday, increasing the state’s pandemic death toll to 6,965. The number of deaths from the virus reported by IDPH has increased in every weekly update in October. “It is instructive to compare Iowa and Minnesota, which have nearly […]
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Experts highlight importance of masks in schools; Gov. Reynolds says she’ll sue to stop any vaccine mandates
In the next issue of Pediatrics, a journal published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, medical experts from Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C., the George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University write that attempts by the states, including Iowa, to ban the use of masks in schools undermines public health efforts to contain COVID-19 […]
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Iowa schools will be able to keep mask mandates, as judge issues preliminary injunction
“It is in the public’s interest to allow local public school districts to exercise their discretion to adopt universal masking policies in an effort to inhibit the spread of COVID-19 and protect the children in their schools,” U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pratt wrote in his decision on Friday. Pratt issued a preliminary injunction against […]
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COVID-19: More than 9,800 new cases reported; anti-vaxxers rally at the Iowa State Capitol
After three weeks of reporting over 10,000 new cases in each of its weekly COVID-19 updates, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 9,860 newly confirmed cases of the virus. Although it was it was a decline from the previous update’s total of 10,812 new cases, it also marked the seventh week with a rate […]
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Iowa City mask mandate extended, as state reports more than 10,000 new COVID cases and 81 deaths
Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague issued an order on Wednesday extending the city’s mask mandate that has been in place since Aug. 19. The new order doesn’t have an expiration date as the previous one did and “shall remain in effect until it is rescinded.” When he first issued the mandate, the mayor explained, “The […]
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School mask mandates can stay in place — judge extends his temporary restraining order against Reynolds administration
On Monday, Judge Robert Pratt extended his temporary restraining order (TRO) that prohibits the state from enforcing the ban on school mask mandates Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in May. “Enforcement of [the school mask mandate ban] continues to pose a threat of irreparable harm to the children’s health and rights under the Americans […]
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New Iowa Poll finds majority approve of Gov. Reynolds’ overall handling of pandemic, but disapprove of her mask and vaccine policies
A majority of Iowans approve of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ overall handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they also disapprove of the governor’s actions on face masks and vaccines. Those seemingly contradictory results are included in the latest Iowa Poll published by the Des Moines Register. According to the survey of 805 Iowans, all 18 and […]
