(Radio Iowa) – President Biden is approaching his 100th day in office this week and his administration is getting a back-handed complement from Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley as to how Biden is handling the pandemic. Grassley says, “I think that he is doing an outstanding job of carrying on the outstanding policies of the Trump administration.”

President Biden is scheduled to provide an update today (Tuesday) as to how his administration has responded to COVID-19. Grassley, a Republican, says the groundwork to attack the virus was already in place, thanks to the previous administration. “Because of what President Trump did and what President Biden followed through on, we’re at a point where we aren’t worrying about people getting enough doses to get it stopped,” Grassley says. “We’ve got more doses than we have people.”

Biden set a goal of delivering 200-million shots in his first 100 days in office. That goal was reached last week, on his 92nd day, what Biden called “an incredible achievement for the nation.” Grassley offers little credit to the current president but says he’s satisfied by what’s been accomplished with the vaccine. “Normally, you’d have to wait for the thing to be approved, which was in November, and then another six months for the stuff to be manufactured and start vaccinating people in July,” Grassley says. “We got it all done because of President Trump and then President Biden doing a good job to carry it out.”

It’s expected the president today will discuss easing restrictions on people who’ve been vaccinated, as a way of acknowledging their lower risk and to also offer more prompting for everyone to get the shots. Grassley tested positive for COVID in November and went into isolation, but said he experienced no symptoms.

Two people were injured Monday, when the motorcycle they were riding struck a deer, west of Wiota. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports the cycle was driven by 22-year-old Austin Boggs, of Atlantic. His passenger was identified as 29-year-old Paige Boken. The pair were traveling east on White Pole Road at around 7:13-p.m., when a deer entered the roadway from the south ditch, near 662nd Street.

When the cycle hit the animal, Boggs and Boken were ejected. The cycle and occupants slid across the gravel shoulder and onto the south shoulder of the roadway.  Both occupants were transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital by Cass County EMS with serious, non-life threatening injuries. Anita Fire and Rescue, Wiota Fire and Rescue, and Cass County EMS assisted the Cass County Sheriff’s Office at the scene.

(Des Moines) – The Iowa Department of Public Health, Tuesday (Today), reported there were 348 additional positive COVID-19 cases, for a pandemic total of 392,911, and for the second day in a row, no additional deaths. That leaves the statewide total at 5,927 since the start of the pandemic. Deaths at long-term care facilities in Iowa account for 2,313 of the total number of deaths statewide.

Iowa’s positivity rates are down slightly. The 14-day average is 4.1%, and the 7-day average is 3.9%. Virus hospitalizations amount to 184, up from 179 a day earlier. There are 35 patients in ICU (compared to 42 the previous day), and 23 patients on ventilators. There were 18 persons with COVID symptoms admitted to hospitals in Iowa over the previous 24-hours.

In RMCC Regional 4 (hospitals in western/southwest Iowa): 14 COVID patients are hospitalized; seven are in an ICU; two people were admitted with symptoms of the virus, and there remain five people on a ventilator.

Vaccinations administered as of Monday amount to over 2.23-million, with more than 991,430 of those vaccinated having their series completed.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County; The # of new cases since yesterday {+} if any; and the total number of deaths in each county to date:

Cass, 1,446 cases; {+1}; 54 deaths
Adair, 973; {+2}; 32
Adams, 343 {+0}; 4
Audubon, 515 {+1}; 9
Guthrie, 1,273 {+1}; 29
Harrison County, 1,909; {+1}; 73
Madison County, 1,701; {+0; 19
Mills County, 1,768; {+4}; 21
Montgomery, 1,097{+0}; 37
Pottawattamie County, 11,987; {+14}; 164
Shelby County, 1,351 {+0}; 37
Union County, 1,317; {+0}; 32

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports an arrest has been made in connection with a death that took place last June. Sheriff Lyle Palmer says on Monday, April 26th at 4:00 p.m. officers arrested 51-year-old Melissa Renee Pedersen, of Clarinda, on a Page County warrant for felony dependent adult abuse. Pedersen was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Page County Jail where she is being held on $11,000 cash only bail.

Melissa Renee Pedersen

Sheriff Palmer says the arrest of Melissa Pedersen stems from an investigation conducted by the Clarinda Police Department and the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office into the death of Thomas Joseph Pedersen, who was found dead in his home at 600 West Lincoln Street on June 2, 2020. Melissa Pedersen and Thomas Pedersen were married and resided together at the time of Thomas Pedersen’s death.

Reports have been forwarded to Page County Attorney’s Office for decisions concerning the filing of formal charges.

Police in Creston say a man residing in the 700 block of Hickory Street reported on April 24th, that someone broke into his vehicle and stole his backpack and a silver Apple Mac Book Pro laptop computer. The loss was estimated at $1,800.