Governor slashes COVID-19 restrictions

Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday issued a new proclamation that eased certain public health regulations aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 in Iowa.

Effective Sunday, Iowans no longer needed to wear masks when indoors in a public space and within six feet of individuals who are not from their household. The new proclamation "strongly encourages" social distancing and mask wearing, but does not carry any mandates regarding personal preventative measures.

Additionally, Iowans no longer need to limit indoor gatherings to 15 people, or 30 when outdoors. Reynolds in the order again strongly encouraged event organizers to take reasonable measures to protect the health of their guests as well as the public.

Despite the rollback, Clay County's mask mandate remains in effect.

On Dec. 1, the Clay County Board of Supervisors approved the mask regulation after an endorsement from the Clay County Board of Health. Citizens and visitors in the county are to wear masks in public spaces when a distance of six feet or greater cannot be maintained between people.

The board of health met last Thursday and reviewed the COVID-19 numbers in Clay County. According to a news release, members were encouraged to see decreases in cases and felt it showed an increase in masking was working.

"If we stop or become lax in our mitigation efforts of wearing masks, social distancing and practicing good hand hygiene, there is a serious risk that we will lose all we have gained in the past six weeks," said Dr. Janessa Mechler, Clay County Board of Health chair. "Let's continue to be kind to our community and support our health care workers. We're not done yet."

Mechler pointed out that vaccine availability continues to be limited locally and a large percentage of the county population has not been immunized. Also, new strains of the COVID-19 virus are being identified in the United States, including in Iowa, which are proving to be more contagious and spreading the virus more rapidly.

Clay County's mask mandate will sunset only if the two-week positivity rate is under 5 percent over a 14-day average. Positivity rates have shown improvement in recent weeks, but they've not fallen under that threshold.

Mechler said that county and statewide masking has contributed to the decrease in COVID-19 cases.

"Statewide the decrease in numbers is also reflective of increased masking, avoiding large gatherings, and other mitigation measures; however, stopping such effective measures at 8 to 9 percent positivity rates is premature and we can expect to see a rise in cases again," she said.

O'Brien County does not have a mask mandate.

• Clay County positivity rate dips; O'Brien County's stays put

COVID-19 positivity rates remained flat in O'Brien County over the past week and decreased in Clay County.

As of Wednesday morning, O'Brien County's 14-day positivity rate was unchanged from a week ago at 6 percent, while Clay County's was down to 8 percent from 9.4 percent over the same time period. The statewide positivity rate was down from 9.4 percent to 8.6 percent.

Coronavirus-related deaths were up one in Clay County to 24. An apparent reporting discrepancy led to a decrease in deaths in O'Brien County, which was down four fatalities to 54 during the last week. That number is one less than two weeks ago, as the state's coronavirus data website reported the county had 55 COVID-19 deaths on Jan. 27. There have been 5,145 COVID-19 deaths statewide, up from 4,919 last week.

Confirmed infections since the pandemic began tallied 1,755 in O'Brien County, 1,798 in Clay County and 326,414 statewide. Recoveries in that same order were 1,627, 1,624 and 297,821.

As of Sunday, there were 318 coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Iowa, down from 358 the previous week. One was from Clay County and none were from O'Brien County.

Administered vaccine doses as of Monday totaled 2,047 in O'Brien County, 1,847 in Clay County and 364,642 statewide, 348,659 of which were Iowa residents. Completed vaccine series were 95,642 statewide, 486 in O'Brien County and 550 in Clay County.