Eastern Iowa hospitals, public health departments prepare for COVID-19 case surge

As parts of Iowa and states across the country face a resurgence in COVID-19 cases amid the reopening of businesses, health officials say they're keeping a close eye on the number of hospitalizations related to the disease.

On Thursday afternoon, the state was reporting 145 Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19. In region five, which includes Johnson County and 13 other counties of southeast Iowa, there are 25 people hospitalized, according to the state's Coronavirus.iowa.gov website.

The county started to see cases rise June 17 after a steady period of lower case numbers for about five weeks. On Monday, the state reported the county had a total of 61 new confirmed cases in a single day.

Johnson County was reporting a total of 1,227 positive COVID-19 cases Thursday.

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In response, Sam Jarvis, community health manager for the Johnson County Department of Public Health, said the county has contracted with 27 people for its contact tracing program. Seven additional staff members also cross-trained just in case the surge in cases continues, he said.

"We have seen less cases the past couple of days, but we’re certainly being cautious, in terms of staffing throughout the week and weekend, to ensure we’re able to meet the demand," he said Wednesday evening.

He reiterated that the new cases continue to impact younger adults, and it's probably due to several factors but is most likely linked to social-distancing restrictions being eased.

There are also more social events, people aren't wearing face coverings in public, people not maintaining six feet of physical distance and not staying home when ill, he said.

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Several businesses downtown have started to post signs in their windowfronts or have closed again temporarily since reopening.

"No mask, no entry, no exceptions" and "Stop. Face mask required" signs were seen posted in front of Deadwood Tavern, The Shop, Ten Thousand Villages and MERGE this week, among others.

"Our guidance has not changed, but we’re certainly encouraging everyone to adopt the practices for their everyday activities and normalize them because the pandemic isn’t over and it’s so very important to not only protect yourself from getting ill, but also protecting those who need it most," Jarvis said.

Dr. Theresa Brennan, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics' chief medical officer, said the hospital has not yet seen hospitalizations increase. On Wednesday, the hospital had 13 adult inpatients with COVID-19, according to its Thursday update. Those patients may be from counties other than Johnson.

"We do anticipate an increase in hospitalizations as these younger people visit with family members and interact within the community," she said.

With the increase in cases and more people being seen in the respiratory illness clinic, the UI hospital incident command team returned to daily meetings. It also moved its testing site to help accommodate those higher numbers.

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"We encourage everyone to continue wearing their masks, continue social distancing — that’s how we’re going to get through this," she said. "Everyone wants to get back to normal, but we’re not there yet. We all need to work together to get there."

Janelle Beswick, outreach and marketing coordinator for the Iowa City VA Health Care System, said the hospital currently has two inpatients with COVID -19.

"Our peak number of inpatients was eight, on April 15," she said. "We were down to zero COVID-19 inpatients from June 4 to June 11, but through June, it increased a bit again, peaking at 4 COVID-19 inpatients on June 25."

Margaret Reese, Mercy Iowa City's public information officer, said the hospital previously saw a decline in hospitalizations and positive tests as others did.

"In the last 10 or so days, we have seen an increase in both the numbers of tests done every day and the number who test positive, which has aligned with what the Johnson County Department of Public Health is reporting," she said.

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The hospital declined to share the number of current hospitalizations related to the disease out of concern for patients' privacy.

University of Iowa epidemiologist Dr. Eli Perencevich wrote on Twitter Thursday, "Iowa needs to look at Arizona closely. Cases eventually lead to deaths."

As there is no national or state mandate for the use of face coverings in public, Perencevich has been urging for widespread use of face coverings to prevent the spread of the virus.

On Thursday, the state was reporting that Johnson County has seen a total of eight COVID-19 deaths.

Reach Hillary Ojeda at 319-339-7345, hojeda@press-citizen.com or follow her on Twitter at @hillarymojeda.