Gazette Daily News Briefing, October 31 and November 1
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of October 31 and November 1.
Your forecast for this weekend will feature nice and windy weather followed by chilly and windy weather. According to the National Weather Service, it should be sunny with a high near 62 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. It will be windy, though, with winds of 15 to 25 mph gusting as high as 40 mph. On Sunday, it will also be sunny and windy, but the high will be 20 degrees colder, predicted at 42 degrees.
Iowa ended the week with COVID-19 the way it began it: setting records in the wrong direction. The state on Friday reported 2,617 Iowans tested positive for COVID-19, a record for a 24-hour period. The previous record of 2,579 on Aug. 27, had actually been a statistical outlier up until the end of this week, as that was when the state had added the results of antigen tests to its totals when it had not before.
The number of hospitalizations on Friday increased by one, to 606, a record for the fifth day.
Patients being treated in intensive care units increased from Tuesday’s 135 to 152. Fifty-five patients are on ventilators, down one from Thursday’s total.
Without a change in behavior and more emphasis on mitigation strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Iowans are “going to continue to suffer the consequences,” according to an Dr. Jorge Salinas, a leading epidemiologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
The situation in Iowa is critical after a spike in viral transmissions has driven the record-breaking number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients statewide, Salinas said. He fears that if nothing is done to slow the spread of the disease, it could overwhelm the state’s hospital system.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, when last asked about the disease, downplayed the threat, saying the state has plenty of hospital capacity remaining. She last held a COVID-19 press conference on Oct. 7, and has spent much of the month on the campaign trail stumping for fellow Republicans.
Iowa City leaders worry a population undercount — confirmed in early reports from the U.S. Census Bureau — will slash federal funding to the growing community.
When counting for the 2020 census wrapped up earlier this month, only 68.5 percent of Iowa City’s estimated population had responded to the national head count, well below the 75.8 percent self-response rate in the 2010 census, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.
Iowa’s other state college towns also were below expected counts. Ames, home to Iowa State University, had a self-response rate of 68 percent on Oct. 17, compared with 77.7 percent in 2010, and Cedar Falls, home to the University of Northern Iowa, had a 73.9 percent self-response rate compared with 79 percent in 2010.
Iowa City officials told the Gazette that they would consider a special census to recoup lost funding from an undercount.
