Gazette Daily News Briefing, Dec. 5-6

Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?"

If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes.

Here’s your weekend update for Dec. 5-6, 2020:

There is a slight chance of flurries in the Cedar Rapids area Saturday night, but it should otherwise be a mild weather weekend according to the National Weather Service. The projected high temperature is 41 Saturday and 40 Sunday.

Iowa’s previous record of 70 COVID-19 deaths set Thursday lasted only a day. The state reported 84 new confirmed coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours on Friday, bringing the statewide total to 2,603. Worth County reported its first death due to COVID-19, making it Iowa’s 98th county with a confirmed coronavirus death. Only Decatur County has not attributed a death to the pandemic. In the last week, 252 deaths have been reported across the state, more than any other 7-day period. There were 2,905 new cases over the last 24 hours and the total number of case now stands at 239,699. After nine consecutive days of the 7-day average of new cases dropping, Friday saw an increase in the 7-day average, climbing up to 2,307.

After facing a workforce shortage for months, Iowa awarded an emergency $2.3 million COVID-19 contact-tracing contract to a company that has worked for the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Gov. Kim Reynolds and is owned by a Republican insider, the Associated Press reported Friday. The Iowa Department of Public Health selected Iowa City-based MCI out of 14 applicants, saying it submitted the best proposal and that political considerations did not play a role in the deal. The company is expected to supply 200 contact tracers to supplement the hundreds of public health workers who have failed to keep up with Iowa’s fast-growing virus caseload. The first 60 graduated training and were beginning state work Friday. MCI had pitched its services to Iowa officials since the beginning of the pandemic and says it does contact tracing and management in six other states, including Alabama and Louisiana.

Although University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld in justifying his early retirement announcement in October said he wanted to allow more time to find his replacement during unparalleled pandemic conditions, a search timeline released Friday has regents choosing a successor by April 30. That timeline — revealed during the first UI presidential search committee meeting — has the 21-member group choosing semifinalists by March 22, interviewing them and identifying finalists by April 6-7, and bringing finalists for campus visits by April 19-23. The campus would gather feedback about the candidates through April 29, with the Board of Regents interviewing finalists and choosing a 22nd UI president April 30.