Iowa Department of Public Health responds to outbreaks at businesses

Iowa Department of Public Health Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter said Thursday that IDPH will only report outbreaks at meatpacking plants and other processors and manufacturers if 10 percent of the plant's workforce tests positive for COVID-19.

Some state and local officials have criticized the IDPH for responding too slowly to requests for testing at the plants and their delay in releasing the test results. The IDPH is also not required to report outbreaks to the community and will report outbreaks only when necessary. Some questions have been raised about how keeping outbreaks from the public help Iowans stay safe.

If positive cases do occur, contact tracing will immediately begin. The IDPH contacts all who may have had exposure to the positive individual(s), but there are scams who claim to be the IDPH.  Reisetter says that the way to tell the difference between scam calls and non-scam calls is that the IDPH will never ask for Social Security numbers or financial information.