This group of community leaders and healthcare professionals give a daily update on the community's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are the key points from the briefing:
- Rock Island County
- A second person has died from COVID-19, a woman in her 60s who was hospitalized
- 13 new cases are being reported today
- 5 people remain hospitalized
- 73 total positives in the county
- Scott County
- 11 new cases reported today
- 77 total in the county
- 57 have recovered from the illness
- 9 are currently hospitalized; 1 person has been discharged and is recovering
- 9 were never hospitalized
- 1 person has died
- Here are statistics for the ages of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Scott County
- Age info:
- 18-40 - 29% of cases
- 41-60 - 53% of cases
- 61-80 - 15% of cases
- 81 and up 4% of cases
- Similar age breakdowns are being seen across Iowa
- Ed Rivers with the Scott County Health Department says the most important part of an individual case investigation is to identify their close contacts
- The statistics show that this isn't just an illness that older adults are catching; finding many more in the middle aged adult age groups in fact based on pos caes receieved younger and middle age adults are higher that older and elderly
- People over the age of 60 are more likely to experience more serious illness
- There has been a lot of discussion about personal protective equipment, which includes masks, gowns, goggle and face shields, short supply.
- Some of the PPE is coming from the Strategic National Stockpile, which is then distributed from state emergency management agencies
- The Salvation Army is collecting homemade masks for distribution to those in need
- The Quad Cities Community Foundation has been distributing grants out of the COVID-19 relief fund for qualifying Quad Cities organizations, schools, and nonprofits. To date, they’ve gotten requests for $2.8 million+ worth of grants
- An initial $350,000 was distributed on March 30. A second round of grants is expected to be announced next week.
- The River Bend Foodbank is remaining in operation, with limited staff, to ensure safety and prevent spread of COVID-19.
- Typically in a year, the foodbank does their work with the help of 15,000 hours and 4,000 volunteers working alongside staff.
- In the last three weeks, 36 people packed 10,000 food boxes. The foodbank’s CEO Mike Miller said the toughest part is doing the packing, and having no other assistance.
- They’ve changed their pickup protocols at the foodbank, as well as at food pantries like NorthPark and SouthPark. These changes minimize person-to-person contact.
- They are asking for people to go to their website to register as a volunteer. While there are no opportunities available at the moment, they will come up again in the future.