Statewide Iowa — State officials have set up a new distribution system for the personal protective equipment from the state’s stockpile.
Jacob Nicholson is head of the response division in the Iowa Homeland Security Emergency Management Department.
(as said) “We worked in partnership with the county emergency management coordinators from Butler, Cherokee, Linn, Mahaska, Polk, Pottawattamie and Union County to establish seven PPE hubs or nodes,” he says. “These nodes will supply county emergency management coordinators and county EOCs with PPE needed to address supply shortages.”
Nursing homes with Covid outbreaks may get a week’s supply of PPE. Other nursing homes as well as hospitals and health care providers may request material from the state’s stockpile as well.
(as said) “From the very beginning of the state’s pandemic response, our hospitals, long term care facilities and other health care providers have been requesting state PPE and other supplies through their county emergency management coordinators when they experience shortages,” Nicholson says. “We believe our latest distribution model will enable those facilities to have those requests filled more rapidly than ever before.”
Nicholson says over the past three weeks, with the increase in positive cases, there’s been a significant increase in usage rates for PPE.
(as said) “Even taking into account these increased usage rates, we have over 16 months’ supply of gloves and over 18 months’ supply of disposable gowns remaining in our stockpile,” he says. “Additionally we have executed contracts with suppliers for these high demand items, with resupply shipments scheduled to be delivered to our warehouse every month for the next seven months.”
Nicholson spoke at Governor Reynolds’ news conference Tuesday. He did not mention how many masks are on hand in the state stockpile. The governor’s spokesman later said the state has a 23-month supply of cloth and disposable face masks. According to Nicholson, the state has distributed 15-point-seven million items from its medical supply stockpile since the pandemic began. Those items ranging in size from ventilators to the boxes of tissues Covid test takers use to blow their noses before a nurse takes a nasal swab at a Test Iowa site. The five state-operated Test Iowa sites in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Davenport were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. The State Hygienic Lab where the Test Iowa kits are processed were closed, too.
