The state of Iowa issued its second denial of a school district s request to hold online classes since August on Friday this time to the Iowa City Community School District.
In an ongoing disagreement between state and local health and education officials in Iowa about what constitutes safe learning conditions amid a global pandemic, the Iowa Department of Education denied the Iowa City district s request to temporarily hold classes remotely beginning Monday, Jan. 11, on the basis that Johnson County s 14-day virus positivity rates, which have hovered between 11% and 13% this week after falling to as low as 6.9% shortly after Christmas, are currently too low to justify online-only learning.
Johnson County Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Schueler, in his weekly discussion at the COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center Briefing this week, said it is exciting to see a major turning point in the war on COVID, with the implementation of vaccinations during the last few weeks.
He touched on vaccine safety, saying he believes the vaccine is safer than risking getting the disease.
Dr. Schueler said that medical science clearly does not yet know the long-term effects of the vaccine, but he is more concerned about what the long-term effects of the COVID virus could be, how it affects our nervous system and our immune system.
Robin King, with Public Health, said vaccinations have kept them busy during the last span class ”player fa fa-play” onclick ”playSound(this, ‘/audio/2020/01-06-41.mp3’);” week. /span
Public health does not know when the next phase of vaccinations, 1c, will begin, and they are waiting from notifications from the State Department of Health, to let the public know when that happens.
She said active cases of the virus continue to trend down, with only 13 current cases in the county.
King said the latest update to the state public health orders removes the requirement for bars and restaurants to close at 10pm, and allows fitness classes to be expanded.