The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus Dashboard, Thursday morning, indicated there were 62 additional, positive cases of COVID-19 over the previous 24-hours, for a pandemic total of 404, 132. There were three additional deaths reported, for a statewide pandemic total at 6,120. Deaths at Iowa’s Long-Term Care facilities since the start of the pandemic, amount to 2,372.

Long-Term Care (LTC) facility outbreak data is essentially unchanged since Wednesday. Officials say there are a total of 26 positive cases among patients and staff at two facilities, and 11 persons who have recovered. Iowa’s 14-day positivity rate is steady at 2.1%. The seven-day positivity rate is also 2.1%.

There are a total of 57 Iowans hospitalized with COVID (Statewide). Health officials report 20 patients are in an ICU; seven COVID patients were admitted to a hospital, and 12 patients are on a ventilator. In RMCC Region 4 (hospitals in western & southwest Iowa), there is just one person hospitalized with COVID-19, and one person in an ICU.

In the immediate KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County (since the beginning of the pandemic) and the total number of deaths (Since the beginning of the pandemic) in each county to date:
Cass, 1,478 cases; 55 deaths
Adair, 996; 32
Adams, 356; 4
Audubon, 553; 11
Guthrie, 1,318; 32
Harrison County, 1,936; 73
Madison County, 1,790 19
Mills County, 1,808; 24
Montgomery, 1,116; 38
Pottawattamie County, 12,369;174
Shelby County, 1,379; 37
Union County, 1,382; 35

(Ames, Iowa/Iowa DOT News) – It’s not unusual to travel down an Iowa interstate alongside a semi loaded with livestock or poultry. Easy access to world-class transportation and an abundance of corn and soybeans grown here make Iowa ideally suited for raising these animals. What we don’t often see, but can be a real issue, is the aftermath when one of these livestock trucks crashes, tying up a busy highway for hours, delaying your trip and increasing the risk of secondary crashes in the area. The more people you have at a crash scene, the higher the risk.  These types of crashes often require the assistance of animal handlers and veterinarians who aren’t used to being alongside a busy highway in a stressful situation.

Other unusual tasks such as rounding up loose animals and constructing temporary holding pens may be needed and cause additional delays and complications at the crash site. If the first responders are not trained in how to deal with traffic crashes involving livestock, the risk to the people at the scene, the animals, and drivers near the incident increases. To help educate responders, the Iowa Pork Producers Association developed a webinar series highlighting specific challenges when a livestock carrier is involved in a crash. Jamee Eggers from the Iowa Pork Producers Association explained why the training was initiated.  “We recognized that crashes, especially roll-over crashes that involve livestock, can impact both public safety and animal welfare,” she said. “We developed this series that includes topics like animal handling and scene management to help responders understand what they might encounter. First responders aren’t typically trained animal handlers and animal handlers don’t typically understand traffic incident management. The more we can educate first responders on what to expect and who to contact, the safer we’ll all be in the event of an incident.”

(Photo via IADOT, courtesy Hitz Towing)

Because these incidents don’t happen regularly, Eggers said there really are no trends or consistency in response. “It’s particularly important in these types of crashes that responders have relationships with animal handlers and veterinarians so they can reach out quickly. Finding rescue trailers and other equipment is another topic we touch on in the series.” Bonnie Castillo who works with traffic incident management for the Iowa Department of Transportation said, “From a road user perspective, the cost of these incidents is very high because they often take several hours to clear. Much of that time is spent trying to find the resources to provide care for the animals involved. If we can get the word out to responders on who to contact, that will speed up clearance times, reducing the inconvenience and increasing safety to the other drivers on the road.” Castillo continued, “The responders are very well trained on dealing with human crash victims, but not necessarily livestock and especially animals that may be injured. Since these types of crashes tend to take hours to be removed, it’s critical that responders know who to call to care for the livestock that are involved, but also maintain the safety and  security of the crash scene.”

Bringing people to crash scenes who don’t have experience in traffic incident management or chain-of-command can be a challenge in and of itself. “In one of the sessions we go over basic scene management and chain-of-command,” said Eggers. “This helps responders explain these elements to animal handlers and others who are called to the scene who may have never been involved in an effort like this before.” Eggers says the response to the webinars has been very positive. “We used real-world examples that resonated with the attendees,” she said. “These examples generated a lot of great questions and allowed us to provide resources that folks may not have been aware of. The series started conversations between people who don’t typically interact, but the relationships are essential in an emergency situation.”

This training is also being considered as part of the Statewide Traffic Incident Management conference being planned for 2022. Castillo said exercises with Iowa DOT district staff, the Iowa State Patrol, and others are also in the planning stages as funding is available. Eggers said, “Iowa pig farmers prioritize both animal welfare and human safety. We appreciate this partnership with DOT to help address both issues.”

(Radio Iowa) – The new report from the Iowa Association of Realtors confirms it’s a sellers’ market. The Realtors’ report says multiple records were set for home sales in May. First, houses across the state were selling faster than usual, spending an average of 41 days on the market, which is 34-percent fewer than during May of last year. The number of homes sold rose by more than 11-percent compared to a year ago, while median sale prices were up more than eight-percent.

The median price last May was 184-thousand dollars versus 199-thousand this May. Also, since there’s such high demand, a record number of homes are selling well over the asking price.

(Radio Iowa) – Many Iowa music venues are still waiting for federal funding to help them keep their doors open during the pandemic. The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant offers money to live music venues that lost revenue due to COVID-19. Tobi Parks owns X-B-K, a small performing arts venue in Des Moines. She says venues have waited long enough and need the money now. “Every month that the expenses are coming again is another month that a venue ends up unfortunately closing its doors,” Parks says, “and we are in a desperate position.”

Congress approved the grant program in December of 2020, but it’s up to the U-S Small Business Administration to release and assign the funding. The grants are split up based on economic losses. Parks says many Iowa venues had losses and are in critical condition financially as they wait for the funds to arrive. “We are hanging on by a thread right now and that funding needs to come as soon as humanly possible,” she says.

The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, run through the S-B-A, allows for more than 16-billion dollars in grants. Parks made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “Talk of Iowa.”

(Radio Iowa) – U-S Marshals who’ve been tracking an accused drug dealer through several states for the past year arrested the man on a Iowa farm late yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon. In June of last year, 39-year-old Untavious Davenport was indicted by a Missouri grand jury on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin and fentanyl. U.S. Marshals were called in after Davenport fled Missouri. They followed a trail to Chicago, then through other states and ultimately to a rural area just north of the town of Zwingle, which has fewer the 100 residents.

After days of surveillance, authorities identified Davenport outside of a farmhouse according to a news release from the U-S Marshals Service and Marshals from Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri along with Dubuque County law enforcement officers took Davenport into custody. He’s being held in Linn County’s jail in Cedar Rapids as federal officials seek his extradition back to Missouri.

(Radio Iowa) – With the 4th of July weekend just ahead, many Iowans will be declaring their independence from the pandemic by taking vacations for the first time in many months. Meredith Mitts, spokeswoman for Triple-A Iowa, says people are packing up for road trips and jaunts via airplane. Nationwide, more than 47-point-7 million Americans are projected to be plotting getaways between July 1st and 5th. “That means that we are nearly recovered from the pandemic levels,” Mitts says. “This is the second-highest Independence Day travel volume we have on record, trailing only behind 2019 with just 2.5% fewer Americans traveling this year compared to 2019.”

The travel predictions for the upcoming holiday represent an increase of nearly 40-percent compared to last year, what Mitts says is a remarkable figure. “Some of it is just pandemic fatigue and staying home is really getting to people,” Mitts says. “The summer is nice. People are wanting to get back out. Part of it is just that desire to go see people and be able to see things again. It’s been a long time since many people have traveled.”

While all modes of travel will see increased demand this Independence Day, road trips will dominate this summer. Despite the highest gas prices in seven years, Triple-A projects more than 91-percent of holiday travel will be by car. Gasoline prices in Iowa are now averaging two-89 a gallon, a significant hike from two-oh-five a year ago. “So, quite a big difference between 2021 and 2020, but that’s to be expected as there weren’t people traveling last year, there wasn’t this demand,” Mitts says. “We’re back to basically the pre-pandemic levels. We always see an increase around a holiday weekend and during the summer as people are taking to the roads.”

Iowa’s cheapest gas is in Council Bluffs at two-85 a gallon, while it’s most expensive in Dubuque at two-96. The national average is three-oh-seven.