County Health Director: "The virus is out of control"

Winneshiek County Public Health Director Krista Vanden Brink says she's seeing several disturbing trends in COVID-19 statistics.

Vanden Brink says she's worried because hospital beds in the area have been filling up, forcing some COVID-19 patients to isolate at home instead.  "It's a big concern for us heading into the flu season," she told Winneshiek County Supervisors on Monday.

Vanden Brink repeated the advice health experts have been giving since the beginning of the epidemic: "we need everybody to mask up and to limit the size of gatherings."  She said right now people "really don't need to be doing" large gatherings of more than 50 people.

Her comments come as 44 out of Iowa's 99 counties over the weekend exceeded 14-day averages of more than 15 percent of COVID tests coming back positive.  "The virus is out of control," she concluded to supervisors.