COVID cases in Henry County begin to slow

MT. PLEASANT - Though Henry County is one of 22 counties in Iowa that has not yet been reopened by Gov. Reynolds, Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin anticipates the county may be on the path to loosened restrictions.

Currently the county has 32 cases, Van Dorin reported to the county's Board of Health on Thursday.

'I'm thinking by at least the 15th, we should be opening up. We have had zero cases in the last six days, which is very unusual. We usually have one or two every other day, so that's good news,” Van Dorin said.

Even with a reopening in sight, Van Dorin added it's important to continue being diligent about keeping the virus out of long-term care facilities in the area. Across the state, 77 of the 162 COVID-related deaths were elderly individuals, Van Dorin noted.

'I'm really glad our numbers are slowing down,” she added.

Mary Liechty, board president, asked about changes in testing turnaround. Initially she had been receiving results within 24 to 48 hours, but had since been told it could take up to five days.

Van Dorin said the lag time in testing results was common with reference labs.

'They're saying they're a little faster, but they're really not. I think the reference labs are 48 to at least 72 hours. I think related to the volume the State Hygenics Lab has, I think that has slowed their turnaround time also,” Van Dorin explained.

Liechty also asked Van Dorin about what vaccine distribution would look like once one is available for the virus.

Van Dorin said conversations around vaccine distribution have not yet begun.

The public health director added she does see her department handling dispersion of the vaccine, and said she anticipates the first groups to get them when available are the long-term care facilities.

'We would use that vaccine for the long-term care facilities. They would come and get their supplies and then go to their long term care facility and vaccinate their close contacts and their elders,” she said.

For the rest of the general public, Van Dorin added the department has also practiced using open pods 'where people would line up” in public spaces to get a large group of people immunized quickly.

'We practiced that with Iowa Wesleyan last October. We gave them tootsie rolls, not shots. It gave us an idea of how the flow would work and gave us some really good insight,” she said. In addition, the department has memorandums of understanding with schools and churches to use their facilities for the immunization pods as well.

'If we have to, we've practiced that quite a bit and we're ready to go,” she said.