The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Cass County Public Health, Saturday, said an additional case of COVID-19 has been identified in the county. Cass County Public Health is conducting a contact tracing investigation on this case to identify close contacts who should monitor their health symptoms and self-isolate. Details concerning the persons age, and where they reside, were not released. The person previously reported on April 12th to have tested positive for COVID-19 was released a couple of weeks later, from the hospital.

Cass County Public Health Director Beth Olsen said “With many businesses reopening and some normal activities resuming, it’s more important than ever that Cass County residents take preventive measures to slow the spread of this virus. Wear a mask when you’re running errands, wash or sanitize your hands frequently, stay home as much as possible, and practice social distancing. Social distancing simply means to stay away from groups of people, and to keep a 6-foot distance from other individuals.”

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and shortness of breath. These symptoms may appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to another infected individual. Other symptoms include chills, muscle pain, sore throat, or new loss of taste or smell. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you should call your health care provider before going into the office. The provider may have special instructions for you and will determine if you should be tested.

All residents should: • Stay home as much as possible. Leave only for essential errands like groceries or getting medication. When you run these errands, send only one person from the household, if possible. • Stay home when even mildly ill (the kind of illness that normally wouldn’t prevent you from your everyday activities). • Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or your elbow/upper arm. • Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

For up-to-date information on COVID-19, visit the IDPH webpage at https://idph.iowa.gov/Emerging-HealthIssues/Novel-Coronavirus and follow the department on Facebook at @IowaDepartmentOfPublicHealth and on Twitter at @IAPublicHealth. ###

Mills County Public Health officials today (Saturday) said three new positive cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed by the State Hygienic Lab and private testing labs. The three new cases are all adults, in the age range of 18-to 40. One contracted the virus through community spread, the other two through close contact with a previously confirmed case.

The total number of Confirmed Positive cases in Mills County stands at 12, with five persons having recovered and 232 persons tested. Pending tests are not included in the most recent data. Recovered cases are those that meet the criteria for no longer needing isolation of public health monitoring.

Officials urge residents to continue to use good judgement in decisions they make with regard to social distancing, personal protective tools, and sanitizing methods.

Officials with Pottawattamie County Public Health (PCPH), Saturday, said there are 10 new cases of COVID-19. Nine are residents of Council Bluffs, and one is from Carson. Two of the persons are children (age 0-18), two are 18-to 40, four are 41-to 60 years old, and two are age 61-to 80. All were tested between May 11 and May 15th.

So far, officials say, 1,947 Pott. County residents have been tested for COVID-19, and a total of 159 persons have tested positive. Two individuals are hospitalized, 86 are self-isolating, 68 have fully recovered, one is out-of-state, and two have died. As before, officials said the vast majority of the positive cases have not required hospitalization, and have been able to fully recover at home. 53 of the positive COVID-19 cases in Pott. County were contracted through community spread.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa has rebuilt its stockpile of personal protective equipment after a dire shortage that prompted the state to buy replenishments from some unusual sources. Records show Iowa’s executive branch has signed $45 million worth of emergency purchase orders for isolation gowns, masks, face shields, goggles and other equipment from mid-March through April.

That includes $7.2 million in contracts for gowns and goggles with a Des Moines business that has never previously sold either and is known for making Republican campaign signs. The deals include 590,000 masks that were purchased directly from China and to be flown to an Ankeny warehouse.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — A California farm animal sanctuary is spending a small fortune to send two cargo planes to north-central Iowa to rescue 1,000 chickens from an egg farm. Animal Place workers loaded the planes Saturday morning at the Fort Dodge, Iowa, airport with more than 60 crates of the hens to fly back to the group’s sanctuary near Grass Valley in northern California.

The organizations’ director, Kim Sturla, said Friday that the hens came from a nearby egg farm that is going out of business. The farm had planned to simply kill the chickens, but agreed this week instead to give them to the California rescue, which will in turn rehabilitate the hens and adopt them out to people throughout California.

The Iowa Department of Public Health, today (Saturday) released the latest data on COVID-19 in the state. Officials say there are 279 new positive cases and 10 newly reported deaths. That brings the statewide total to 14,328 positive cases and 346 deaths.

IDPH reported 96,300 Iowans have been tested for the virus, while 6,927 have recovered. There are currently 387 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, with 128 listed in intensive care and 83 patients on ventilators. There were 31 patients admitted in the last 24 hours.

IDPH reported 3,480 inpatient beds available, with 449 ICU beds available and 712 ventilators available. Iowa’s hospitalization numbers remain flat or trending downward for more than a week. There are 36 outbreaks reported in Iowa’s long-term care facilities, up one from Friday’s total.

The Iowa Department of Public Health releases new COVID-19 statistics each day on this website.

The Audubon School Board will hold a session via ZOOM conferencing, 7-p.m. Monday, from their Board Room at the High School. Members of the public may attend the meeting in-person, but seating will be limited to 10 participants, with preference going to Board members and others necessary to conduct the meeting. Members of the public are encourage to request the ZOOM link by e-mail from Superintendent Eric Trager, at etrager@audubon.k12.ia.us. The link will be sent to you Monday morning.

On their tentative agenda, the Audubon School Board is expected to take action on:

• Approval of: SU “Breakdown” Insurance for FY21; Milk bids and student fees; the Audit report; List of graduates; and the Sale of a house in Washington State.

The Board will also act approving Bonding Regulations in Board Policy, to include: Post Issuance Compliance for Bond Sale, and, a Bond Disclosure Regulation. Additional action covers approval of a Resolution authorizing an Official Statement for the Bond Sale, setting the date/time for June Special meetings regarding the approval on Bond Sale (June 2nd) and Approval of Year-End Bills (June 30), and approval of concrete replacement by the South Doors.

With regard to Personnel matters, the Audubon School Board will act on a Social Studies/At-Risk Teacher and, Spanish Teacher positions.  In other business, Superintendent Trager will discuss Return to Learn; the CARES Act Fund (as part of the Financial Report), a Transportation report, and an update on Project 1 Building specs. The Board may then move into a closed session per Iowa Code, with regard to a personnel matter.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — It’s unknown if people across the state have been drinking more alcohol as they’ve had to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic — but it is clear the shut down of restaurants and bars had some impacts on alcohol sales. Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division spokesman, Tyler Ackerson, says they saw the change as soon as the pandemic shutdowns started. “In March we had a 26% increase in sales and in April we had a more modest two percent increase in sales over those same months last year,” according to Ackerson.” We think a lot of that increase in March is attributable to changes in consumer purchasing behavior.”

(Image from IABD website)

He says the order closing restaurants and bars led to a quick shift. “We think at that time Iowans shifted the purchasing to liquor by the bottle for at-home consumption. …We saw increased grocery spending during that time, we also saw increased purchase of home goods. So as Iowans were purchasing more of those types of items — we think that liquor was among those purchases as well.” The IABD sells alcohol to the liquor stores and other retailers who then sell it to consumers — so the agency doesn’t have a direct way to track exactly how and what is being purchased. Ackerson says they can track some inventory trends. He says from March 16th through April 1st, there was an 82% increase in the sale of their larger size bottles of liquor and the sales of the standard size bottles increase by 51%.

Ackerson says the loss of restaurant and bar sales was pretty evident as well. “Our largest independently-owned liquor stores have reduced their purchases from ABD by 44% since mid-March. Many of these independent liquor stores rely on selling to bars and restaurants — and with these COVID-19 related closures — they’ve seen that portion of their business significantly decline.” The state later allowed restaurants and bars to sell alcohol to go to help them with the loss of business. “The same week that they were allowed to do that –we saw our case sales of 50 milliliter small bottles increase 60 percent over that same week in 2019,” Ackerson says. “We think that coincides with a lot of restaurants beginning to create to-go cocktail kits. These would be the kits that had the little 50 millimeter-sized bottles and then a non-alcoholic mixer in it.”

Ackerson says it is hard to say that Iowans were using more alcohol as they were confined to their homes with no bars and restaurants to visit. “We can’t be certain our sales figures demonstrate an increase in personal consumption,” he says. “Iowans may have simply changed where they are continuing to enjoy their favorite spirit products. They may have been usually enjoying those at a bar or a restaurant, but with the closures, perhaps they are just switching to consuming those at home.”

Ackerson says they will be watching to see what happens with sales trends as restaurants open back up for inside sales, and when bars are once again allowed to reopen.