New Iowa Mandates Take Effect Today, How Do They Impact You?
Today is the first day of Iowa’s new covid mitigation plan, but how does the new mandate impact you and your life?
At midnight last night, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds implemented new rules to mitigate the spread of covid-19 in Iowa.
The rules impacted all state bars and gathering places, eliminated all sporting events under high school age, and severely limited the number of people able to gather together.
What are the rules and how do they potentially change your life and your family’s? Here’s the rundown:
When in an indoor public space and unable to socially distance, masks are required to be worn by all, and masks will be required to be worn by everyone in state and government buildings throughout Iowa.
Indoor social, community, business and leisure gatherings will be limited to 15 people. Outdoor gatherings are limited to 30. That includes family gatherings, weddings, conventions and other similar activities. It does not restrict workplace gatherings within workplace buildings during business hours (i.e. inside factories, hospitals, etc.)
With the exception of high school, collegiate and professional sports, all organized youth and adult sports activities of any size are suspended. While high school sports and extracurricular activities are not prohibited, spectators at games and events are limited to two people per student and required to wear masks.
Restaurants and bars are required to close at 10 p.m., and cannot host private gatherings of more than 15 people. Masks must be worn by all staff, and customers must wear masks when not seated at tables.
“These measures are targeted toward activities and environments where they have the potential to make significant impact in a relatively short amount of time,” Reynolds said. “This doesn’t mean changes will be easy or popular but they’re necessary if we want to keep businesses open, our kids in school and our healthcare system stable.”
All the measures will be reassessed in a week and additional measures could be added depending on the rising numbers of cases, Reynolds said.
Iowa’s state positivity rate has gone over 50 percent as of today, hitting 50.7 percent for the time period of Nov. 8-14, according to John’s Hopkins University statistics.
There were 4,337 new, confirmed cases from 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4 to 10 a.m. last Thursday. Nov. 12, according to the state’s dashboard, which brings the state’s total number of cases to 170,358.
The state’s website says that of the 170,358 people who have tested positive, 105,357 have recovered. This is 1,146 more recoveries than what the state reported Wednesday.
The number of active positive cases in the state is 65,001. The positivity rate from the last 24 hours is 50 percent.
The state is reporting 30 additional deaths within this time frame, leaving the state’s death toll at 1,928.
There were 207 patients hospitalized in Iowa within the last 24 hours and the total number of hospitalizations is 1,208, which is up from 1,190. This sets another record-breaking number of hospitalizations. Of those hospitalizations, 215 are in the ICU and 101 are on ventilators.
In Iowa, there have been 8,562 new tests given, and a total of 1,068,268 people that have been tested for COVID-19.
The Quad-Cities has exploded into the top 10 worst covid outbreak spots in the nation, according to data from the CDC, the New York Times reported. According to the data, the Illinois/Iowa Quad-Cities is now inside the top ten most rapidly spiking hot spots nationwide for the second consecutive week, roaring from number 13 to number 7 to number 6 in just two weeks.
Illinois and Iowa hold 12 of the top 15 spots in the country, with Cedar Rapids holding at number one.
For more information on the covid outbreak, continue to watch your free public media QuadCities.com. We’re providing this fact-based service to keep you informed during the pandemic through a free and easily accessible media source online.
