Slight decrease but still the second highest weekly total of new COVID-19 cases for Allamakee County this past week; Public Health issues statement on death reports
Although the new confirmed COVID-19 case weekly count for the past week decreased for the first time in a month, that new case count for the past week’s timeframe of Tuesday, November 17 through Monday, November 23 still remained at 95 cases, by far the second highest weekly total and ranking only below last week’s total of 108 cases. Similar to last week’s highest-ever single-week case count, six of the past seven days reported were in the double-digit area for number of new cases.
Although a decrease in case numbers is certainly welcome news, this past week also saw two additional deaths of Allamakee County residents reported that were attributed to COVID-19. Allamakee County Public Health released a statement late last week regarding the fact that statistical numbers being reported by the State of Iowa are currently backlogged, including the number of deaths, so it should be expected that once that backlog has been caught up, those statistical numbers may rise dramatically in the near future.
The released statement reads as follows:
Allamakee County COVID death totals from the State of Iowa may soon increase as the State gets caught up with all of the backlogged statistics. Each county death does require investigation to see if the death was truly related to COVID-19 or another health issue.
Because of the huge numbers of COVID-19 testing, result sharing and quarantine education, the State of Iowa is behind in updating their statistics. Veterans Memorial Hospital wishes to explain that if we see a jump in Allamakee County COVID deaths, this is due to deaths from weeks past that are now being called COVID deaths.
Evidence of that backlog is the fact that the two deaths attributed to COVID-19 and most recently reported by the State of Iowa in its Friday, November 20 update actually took place within the several weeks prior to that date. Allamakee County Public Health first received word of the 10th Allamakee County death attributed to COVID-19 October 26 of this year, leaving a gap of nearly one month before the State of Iowa reported that same death due to the ongoing investigation backlog.
“We just don’t want people to be shocked when there is all of a sudden a big jump in the number of deaths reported on a certain day; that’s why we issued that statement,” explained Sheryl Darling-Mooney of Allamakee County Public Health. “They didn’t all just happen on the day they were reported, but that’s when they finally got through the State of Iowa system of investigation and confirmation, and so that’s when they get reported by the State.”
A further plea was issued by Allamakee County Public Health Monday, November 23 to all Allamakee County residents in an effort to get them to take responsibility and heed the guidance set forth by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in her Monday, November 16 proclamation regarding wearing masks and taking other mitigation measures.
That letter is published on Page 10 of this week’s issue of The Standard.
This past week’s reported timeframe began with 15 cases Tuesday, November 17, with a second-highest single-day case count for Allamakee County - 22 cases - being reported for Wednesday, November 18. Thursday and Friday, November 19 and 20 reported 11 and 19 cases, respectively, with 10 more cases Saturday and 16 reported Sunday. The past reported week finished with just two cases reported as of 12 noon Monday, November 23.
LOCAL UPDATES
Neither the Allamakee Community School District nor the Eastern Allamakee Community School District posted their weekly COVID-19 updates as had been advised by both districts and had taken place in previous weeks. The Eastern Allamakee Community School District is currently in the midst of its planned nine-day shut-down that included the district’s Thanksgiving holiday break and the two weekends on either side of that break, in an effort to thoroughly sanitize the district’s school buildings and ease the exposure in that setting for a bit.
In light of the recent spike in positive cases, the Allamakee Community School District is now requiring students and staff in all buildings to wear face coverings. That school district’s board of directors approved that requirement on a split vote, 3-2, at its regular monthly session Monday, November 16 and the requirement was put in place Thursday, November 18. Additional details about that requirement can be found on Page 8 of this week’s edition of The Standard.
Thornton Manor in Lansing did report another pair of cases this past week, leaving that total case number at a combination of 40 staff and residents. The facility is also reporting 17 of those 40 cases have now recovered, and Thornton Manor is now one of 121 long-term care facilities in the state of Iowa working its way through an outbreak of COVID-19.
