Late on Thursday afternoon, the Iowa Department of Education (DOE) rejected the Iowa City Community School District’s request for a waiver to switch to all online classes for two weeks. The district applied for the waiver on Tuesday as Johnson County’s COVID-19 test positivity rate continued to increase over the last two weeks, with fears […]
White House Coronavirus Task Force
Reynolds administration decides it no longer needs the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s weekly reports

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ administration has decided Iowa no longer needs the weekly report on the state from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. “We are not requesting the report at this time,” Iowa Department of Public Health spokesperson Sarah Ekstrand told the Des Moines Register in an email on Monday afternoon. Ekstrand did not respond […]
Iowa surpasses 250,000 COVID-19 cases as the Pfizer vaccine takes another step towards FDA approval

Late Thursday afternoon, the FDA’s vaccine advisory panel voted 17 to 4, with one abstention, to recommend the agency grant emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to people 16 and older. The FDA almost always follows the panel’s recommendations, and the emergency use authorization is expected to happen quickly. The four […]
Gov. Reynolds relaxes some COVID-19 restrictions as deaths from the virus surpass 3,000

Iowa surpassed 3,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, but Gov. Kim Reynolds started her news conference late Wednesday morning by focusing on positive trends. “We are now nearly two weeks out from the Thanksgiving holiday, and we continue to see the same slow, steady in new cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations that we have since […]
Iowa reports 70 COVID deaths, a new one-day record

Iowa shattered its record for most COVID-19 deaths reported in a 24-hour period at 10 a.m. on Thursday, as the Iowa Department of Public Health disclosed another 70 Iowans have died from the virus. The previous one-day high for reported deaths came eight days earlier on Nov. 25, when IDPH reported 47 deaths. IDPH has […]
White House Coronavirus Task Force warns the country is ‘in a very dangerous place,’ ranks Iowa sixth for rate of new cases

In its latest report, the White House Coronavirus Task Force warns the entire country is “in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high COVID baseline and limited hospital capacity; a further post-Thanksgiving surge will compromise COVID patient care, as well as medical care overall.” “The COVID risk to all Americans is at […]
As Iowa finishes a record-setting month for COVID deaths and cases, a Dallas County bar owner sues to overturn restrictions on businesses

At 10 a.m. on Monday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 2,403 people had died from COVID-19 in the course of the pandemic in Iowa, an increase of 28 deaths since 10 a.m. on Sunday. Among the deceased were a resident of Johnson County and a resident of Linn County. Monday’s deaths bring the […]
COVID-19: Gov. Reynolds fears ‘over-mitigating’ as Iowa’s care facilities flounder

Iowa had the fifth-highest rate of new cases of COVID-19 in the country last week, according to the latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report. The report, which was sent to the governor’s office on Sunday and published by ABC News on Tuesday, said Iowa had the third-highest positivity rate in its COVID-19 tests of […]
Iowa reports 40 COVID deaths, a one-day record; Gov. Reynolds relaxes a restriction she imposed two days ago

One day after Iowa surpassed 2,000 COVID-19 deaths, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported its highest one-day number of new deaths from the virus. IDPH reported another 40 deaths from the virus fatalities during the 24-hour period ending at 10 a.m. Those deaths brought the total number of COVID-19 fatalities IDPH has reported since […]
Gov. Reynolds sends mixed messages on face masks as Iowa surpasses 2,000 COVID deaths

Gov. Kim Reynolds began her news conference on Tuesday by repeating much of what she said during her televised speech on Monday night, when she introduced some new, limited COVID-19 restrictions. “Over the last two weeks, the number of hospitalizations have climbed daily,” Reynolds said. “And at times the increases have been significant.” There were […]
Iowa sees a record number of positive tests as White House Coronavirus Task Force warns of ‘unyielding COVID spread’
COVID-19: Iowa has its worst day for new cases yet. Gov. Reynolds says Iowans just need to be reminded to do the right thing.

Iowa recorded its highest ever one-day total of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, when the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 4,562 Iowans had tested positive for the virus during the 24-hour period ending at 10 a.m. That is a 71 percent increase over the previous one-day high of 2,887 new cases set four days […]