Gazette Daily News Brief, September 2
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, September 2.
Besides some patchy fog Wednesday morning, your Wednesday weather is looking mostly uneventful. According to the National Weather Service, that fog should clear after 8:00 a.m., and after that it should be sunny with a high near 83 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. It will remain mostly clear into Wednesday night, with a low of around 60 degrees.
Already with the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita in the nation over the past week, Iowa’s trend grew worse Tuesday even as state officials continue to disregard most of the mitigation steps advocated by a White House task force.
In the latest report published Sunday, the federal coronavirus task force said Iowa’s rate of 232 new cases per 100,000 population over the last week is nearly triple the national average of 88 per 100,000. It strongly recommended the state close bars and limit restaurant capacity in 61 counties, and strongly recommended enacting a mandate that Iowans wear masks in public.
Currently bars are only closed in 6 of Iowa’s counties, and mask mandates have been implemented piecemeal by city governments.
Iowa’s rolling seven-day average of new cases again set a record Tuesday, showing that an average of 1,177 more cases were reported each day for a week. The state’ seven-day rolling average has more than doubled in the past 10 days.
Johnson County, home to the University of Iowa, has become a flashpoint in the state’s COVID-19 trends in recent days — leading the state in new cases.
After learning that some University of Iowa faculty and staff members plan to call in sick Wednesday to protest in-person instruction during the pandemic, Interim Provost Kevin Kregel condemned the threatened action and said it compromised “students’ ability to maintain the educational progress critical to their future success.
Elsewhere in Johnson County, the Iowa City School District has decided to continue to pursue its lawsuit with the state’s teachers union against the governor’s office. After an appeal process, Iowa City Schools has been allowed to start its first two weeks with online only instruction, but the district is now seeking a temporary stay on the state’s powers to prevent them for teaching online beyond those two weeks.The district argues that these decisions should be a function of local control decided by the district, while the governor’s office argues that their restrictions are in compliance with state law.
10 more Iowa counties have been approved for FEMA derecho storm individual assistance. Individual assistance can help disaster-affected homeowners, renters and businesses to maximize recovery, including assistance with housing, personal property replacement and medical expenses. Linn County was approved for Individual Assistance on Aug. 20.
Unfortunately, although Gov. Kim Reynolds requested disaster assistance in 27 counties, FEMA determined that 16 of them did not have sufficient damage to qualify for aid.
