(Radio Iowa) — Secretary of State Paul Pate — the state’s commissioner of elections — says a record 487-thousand votes were cast in the primary, even though in-person voting was sparse. “Everything went real well — a real light physical turnout, but basically that was our plan and that’s what we anticipated,” Pate says. “Most people stepped up and did the absentee.”

Those who DID vote yesterday were greeted by poll workers wearing masks and gloves. Voters in Johnson, Linn and Emmet Counties also had the option of actual drive-thru voting. “It was kind of a hybrid of the curbside concept,” Pate says. “They said: ‘Well, if we’re going to do curbside, why don’t we just have people out here waiting and, if you pull up, we’ll process you from your car.”

There are normally 16-hundred-81 precincts, but due to concerns about the pandemic and the emphasis on voting early by absentee ballot, precincts were consolidated into 514 polling sites yesterday (Tuesday).

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in Iowa City say a peaceful demonstration against police brutality turned violent late Tuesday when protesters broke windows at a county building and threw rocks and water bottles at officers. Protesters said that Johnson County sheriff’s deputies deployed pepper spray during the clash, which occurred before midnight near the Johnson County Health and Human Resources building.

Police arrested University of Iowa student Sevad Duratovic, saying he was seen “stepping away from a broken window carrying a baseball bat” and then swinging at the window of a nearby vehicle.Duratovic was tackled and handcuffed, and said he was hit in the eyes with pepper spray as he was walking to a police vehicle. He denies swinging the bat or breaking any windows.

Police in Shenandoah have arrested a Clarinda man for allegedly taking a vehicle without the owner’s permission. 31-year old Nicholas Steinhoff was arrested Tuesday evening in Clarinda, after he allegedly drove a vehicle from Shenandoah to Clarinda. The incident began at around 6:30-p.m., when were dispatched to the 1000 block of 9th Avenue in Shenandoah, for a possible domestic situation, and a stolen vehicle.

After further investigation, Shenandoah officers contacted Page County deputies to check a residence at 2466 Highway 2, where the car might be located. Acting on that information, Deputies arrested Steinhoff at the same residence. He was being held in the Page County Jail on $2,000 bond.

There hasn’t been much of a change in the COVID-19 numbers we posted this morning, as part of the Iowa Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) COVID-19 dashboard report. The number of  deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours total of 564, with four having taken place since Tuesday. A total of 164,135 Iowans have been tested for the virus, with 20,012 testing positive, 143, 692 testing negative, and 11, 892 persons recovered. The numbers show a slight decline or are nearly flat, depending on the statistics.

IDPH reports 314 are currently hospitalized with the virus, while 116 are listed in intensive care. There were 15 persons admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours and 76 patients on ventilators. IDPH also reports one more LTC outbreak, for a total of 42. There have been 1,595 positive cases, with 764 recovered and 283 deaths. Those numbers also continue to remain relatively flat, with increased testing.

The Region 4 Regional Medical Coordination Center (RMCC)  data – covering hospitals in western/southwest Iowa – continues to show 10 Iowans are hospitalized, 8 are in an ICU, none were admitted over the past 24-hours, and 2 are on ventilators. Those numbers continue a downward trend. Here are the latest county-by-county numbers for Cass & surrounding Counties (with the number recovered in parenthesis) and a 24-hour change (as of the last check) marked by an *:

• Cass: 12 (11)
• Adair: 9 (6)* [1 more recovered than Tuesday]
• Adams: 7 (4)
• Audubon: 13 (8)* [1 more positive case]
• Guthrie: 53 (30)
• Montgomery: 8 (6)
• Pottawattamie: 274 (172)* [2 more positive cases/3 more recovered]
• Shelby: 37 (31)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Legislature has returned to finish work left when the coronavirus pandemic surfaced in Iowa in March and prompted state officials to close the state Capitol. Lawmakers began work Wednesday and are expected to meet for at least two weeks to complete work on a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and address policy measures on which House and Senate leaders reach agreement. Temperatures will be checked at the door and masks will be provided.

Meeting rules have been established to allow lawmakers to be at least 6 feet apart. Committee meetings and floor debates will be streamed on the internet.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa faced a shortage of nurses prior to COVID-19 and now there’s fear of a deepening demand for those health care professionals as the pandemic may bring more rapid burnout. Kate Judge, executive director of the American Nurses Foundation, says a new national well-being initiative targets only nurses, of which there are about 60-thousand in Iowa. “Even before this pandemic, nurses were under extraordinary stress,” Judge says, “and now we have some tools that are specifically designed for nurses, by nurses, that can help them and they’re all free.” The initiative allows nurses to pick what types of service they may need when they need it, using the website Nursing World-dot-org.

“We have something that allows people to do some writing and journaling, if that’s for them,” Judge says. “We have peer-to-peer where people can call in and talk about all the issues that affect them. What we’re hearing from nurses is, it’s not just talking about what’s happening in their clinical environment. They’re talking about their work, their career, their family, life balance.” There’s one-on-one talk therapy available and even an app that enables nurses to track their moods. Judge says there are more than 48-thousand R-Ns and another 12-thousand L-P-Ns with active licenses in Iowa. She says it’s still unclear how coronavirus will impact their numbers.

“We’re concerned that the pandemic will decrease the number of nurses wanting to stay in nursing,” Judge says. “They’ve been in a position where their safety has been a concern, their families’ safety has been a concern. We’re also seeing some positive things where people are responding and saying, ‘I want to be on the front lines.'” Prior to the pandemic, a study found burnout among nurses was at an all-time high, with an estimated 63-percent of nurses exhibiting symptoms including job-induced stress, anxiety and depression.

The American Nurses Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Nurses Association, with the mission to “transform the nation’s health through the power of nursing.”
nursingworld.org