Eight COVID-19 deaths reported in Cerro Gordo County, health officials stress need of practicing preventative measures

This story updated at 5:00 AM Friday, July 17 with information from Iowa Department of Public Health

 

MASON CITY — With the listing of eight new COVID-19 deaths in Cerro Gordo County and another in Hancock County today, local health officials are stressing the need to practice preventative measures to stop the spike of coronavirus cases.

Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health director Brian Hanft says 250 of the county’s 375 cases of COVID-19 have been identified in July. “Really, the only way we’re going to get our hands around this surge that’s happening in our part of the state, and we’re a hot spot in Iowa, is that we need people to adhere to some of the stipulations that we put out in our press announcement. Some of those basic things. Limit your time in public settings. Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Wash your hands and use hand sanitizer as often as you can. Cover your cough and sneezes. Stay home if you are sick. All those really great back-to-basic comments and messaging.”

Hanft says the rise in numbers is attributed to community spread now that businesses are open and people are gathering more.  “When we see the kind of activities that we saw over the 4th of July, it’s certainly not a surprise to us. We anticipated that after seeing all the activity in the lake and in our communities, it was definitely going to surge us, and we’re clearly there. I’ve said this all along, I think by the end of July we could be in the quadruple numbers, we could be up there over 1000 cases as fast as we’re climbing.”

Hanft says mask wearing in public is critically important to stop the spread of COVID-19.  “The science is very clear. We’ve put a real nice video on our website for people to watch, it comes from PBS. They talk about the science of wearing a mask and why it’s so important. The plea really is when people are out in public, wear your face mask, especially if you are going into an indoor environment.” That video can be seen below.

Hanft says they ask those in the area to practice the preventative measures to try to bring the case numbers down.   “Right now we’re just asking the public to help us and follow these guidelines. Use those guidelines to help control the spread, because without it, I suppose the numbers could continue to climb and really overwhelm us.”

Hanft would not confirm if any of the eight new deaths in Cerro Gordo County were connected to the outbreak at Good Shepherd Health Center, where 97 positive cases were listed on the state’s coronavirus website.

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s spokeswoman Amy McCoy tells The Des Moines Register that an unnamed nursing home had not been reporting cases in the state’s data tracking system and that the additional deaths added Thursday did not all happen on the same day.

Seven of the new deaths were people over the age of 80, while the other death was someone in the 61-80 year age range.