Governor may allocate more relief funds to small business grant program
BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR
JOHNSTON - Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds told reporters Tuesday that she's continuing to ask the Trump Administration for additional testing supplies.
During what's become a regular Facebook press conference, Reynolds said in response to a pool reporters question about the number of tests going on and what she perceives as adequate, the governor said she's made calls to President Donald Trump's staff asking for more tests.
Currently the Iowa State Hygenic Lab has 1,761 tests on hand.
On Tuesday, the The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) was notified of 73 additional positive cases of Iowans with COVID-19, for a total of 497 positives. One death was reported in Muscatine County, a middle-aged (41-60) resident. There have been a total of 6,888 negative tests to date, which includes testing reported by the State Hygienic Lab and other labs.
As of Monday night 61 patients have been hospitalized as of Monday night, and the state has seen seven deaths from the illness.
Reynolds said the state has been very aggressive in messaging and said parents need to help make sure children playing outside are adhering to the social distancing guidelines.
"C'mon parents, get out there and help me get those kids minding," she quipped. "You can still go outside, but be smart and when going outside practice social distancing... You can go outside for a walk and be active, you just have to practice social distancing and don't gather in groups."
Reynolds also said with Iowa expecting a peak in cases to take place in the next 14-20 days, Iowa is projected to be in decent shape for regular hospital beds, but may be short in other facets of admitted health care.
"We have 118 hospitals across the state. Right now they've been able to identify 1,500 ventilators, and 12,000 beds with staff for 9,000," she said. "We only have about 600 ICU beds and we have some non-adult beds we could possibly utilize."
Regarding economic relief efforts, Reynolds said she's allocated about $2 million of a $20 million authorization on small business programs, but she is anticipating putting more money toward that grant program and will look at other allocations after the state takes a closer look at the federal CARES Act.
According to IDPH, the locations and age ranges of the 73 individuals include that tested positive in Tuesday's update include:
A status report of monitoring and testing of COVID19 in Iowa is provided by IDPH and can be found here. In addition, a public hotline has been established for Iowans with questions about COVID-19. The line is available 24/7 by calling 2-1-1 or 1-800-244-7431. The state of Iowa has started sharing the number of negative tests conducted at outside labs, and is providing additional information on the conditions of those infected with COVID-19.
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