Tornado hits Des Moines County's hand sanitizer order

Apr. 15--The severe weather that tore through the southern U.S. this past weekend has delayed, if not stopped, a shipment of hand sanitizer to Des Moines County.

"We don't know if we're going to be getting it," said Des Moines County Public Health Director Christa Poggemiller.

The county had secured a pallet of the highly sought-after sanitizer jugs from a private company in Georgia to be distributed to various community partners as well as surrounding counties.

"We reached out regionally to see if anyone needed some," Poggemiller explained.

Des Moines County Emergency Management Coordinator Gina Hardin said the county still will receive sanitizer from the state at the end of the week, but the county has been working to secure its own supplies following changes in guidance at the national level.

Traditionally during states of emergency, the state has provided resources such as hand sanitizer to local governments, but local governments now are being encouraged to purchase their own supplies as Jarred Kushner, an advisor to President Donald Trump, earlier this month said the national stockpile -- traditionally used to backfill state and local supplies in the event of an emergency -- is to be used only as a temporary solution.

So the county sought out its own supply and ordered an entire pallet of half-gallon jugs to be used to refill empty sanitizer containers from a private company in Georgia.

Days before the order was slated to be shipped, however, a tornado struck the area.

Initially it was believed the hand sanitizer was destroyed. However, Des Moines County Public Health later learned it was still intact, through shipping it would be difficult.

It was unclear Wednesday whether the hand sanitizer will be delivered to Burlington.

Poggemiller said the best thing to do to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is to wash hands if possible and that hand sanitizer should be used only if washing hands is not an option.

The number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow throughout southeast Iowa, as well as the rest of the state. Des Moines County now has a total of 7 cases, six of which have been announced over the past 10 days. One person in Des Moines County has recovered from the virus.

In addition, nearby Louisa County has seen a total of 166 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 148 of which are associated with an outbreak at the Tyson Foods plant in Columbus Junction.

State and local health departments have been working closely with Tyson on increased testing efforts to identify positive cases and their contacts in an effort to reduce community spread associated with the outbreak. As of Tuesday, 186 workers had tested positive for the coronavirus. Some live in other counties.

"While most of our cases are associated with this outbreak, it remains important for everyone to stay home as much as possible and to practice social distancing," Louisa County Public Health said Wednesday in a press release. "This simply means to stay away from groups of people, and to keep a 6-foot distance from other individuals."

Henry County has seen 22 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one death. Thirteen Henry County residents have recovered from the virus.

Two COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Lee County. One of those individuals has recovered.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday announced an additional 96 confirmed cases in the state, bringing the state's total to 1,995, as well as four more deaths, bringing the state's death toll to 53. Nine-hundred three Iowans have recovered.

Iowa remains one of the few states without shelter-in-place order. Reynolds has divided the state into 5 regions to determine whether a shelter-in-place will be issued. Currently the highest region is northeast Iowa, with a score of 9. Southeast Iowa remains at a score of 8. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, a score of 10 or greater would warrant a stay-at-home order.

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