Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa House Minority Leader is reacting negatively to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ recent COVID announcement.
Governor Kim Reynolds says the coronavirus is similar to the flu and other infectious illnesses and state agencies will start managing COVID-19 as part of normal daily business. The Public Health Disaster Proclamation the governor first issued in March of 2020 will end on February 15th and the Iowa Department of Public Health will take down its online vaccine finder and no longer publish the number of Iowa nursing homes with COVID outbreaks.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, says this is an interesting time to make this move.
Konfrst says statewide data about the pandemic helps Iowans make good decisions.
Konfrst made her comments during the taping of “Iowa Press” for Iowa PBS. Kelly Garcia, the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says similar agencies in more than half of states are making similar changes to manage COVID as they do other contagious viruses.
The number of Iowa hospital patients who’ve tested positive for COVID has dropped 20 percent since last Friday. State health officials report 741 patients in an Iowa hospital today have COVID — 55 percent of them were admitted specifically for the treatment of the virus.
