Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds imposes new COVID-19 restriction in Northeast Iowa

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has announced that Region 6—the northeastern corner of Iowa which includes Winneshiek County—now has a score of "10" for the impact COVID-19 has had on the area.  That's the trigger that Reynolds has mentioned in the past would bring about new actions to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The new mitigation efforts will be in place for all counties in that region when a proclamation begins at 11:59 p.m. Thursday and will continue until April 30th at 11:59 p.m.

The proclamation limits social, community, recreational, leisure, and sporting gatherings in Region 6 to only people who live together in the same household. It continues to limit weddings, funerals, and other spiritual or religious gatherings to no more than 10 people.

"You may gather only with members of your immediate household," Reynolds said. "Limited exceptions will be made for weddings, funerals and other religious gatherings, which will continue to be restricted to ten people or less."

The proclamation also requires people to remain six feet away from people outside their household whenever possible, and requires employers to take reasonable steps to increase telework and adopt reasonable precautions to protect the health of employees and the public at any in-person operations.

Reynolds says she will also "significantly increase" the number of people doing tracing of the contacts people diagnosed with COVID-19 have had prior to being quarantined.  Additional testing and additional survey teams will be sent to the area, she said.