Kim Reynolds ending COVID disaster declaration, shutting down vaccination and case count websites

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday that she will soon end public health disaster proclamations that Iowa has operated under since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly two years ago.

The shift will include pulling the plug on a state website focusing on COVID data, such as the number of Iowans testing positive for the disease, being hospitalized with it or dying from it. However, many of those statistics will continue to be available on other state and federal websites, Kelly Garcia, interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said Thursday.

Reynolds, a Republican, first invoked a disaster proclamation on March 17, 2020. In the early days of the pandemic, she used such proclamations to close businesses, limit large gatherings and encourage other pandemic responses, such as limiting nonessential surgeries and — briefly — requiring masks to be worn in certain indoor settings.

More: How two Iowa respiratory therapists weather the crush of COVID

Reynolds said in her statement Thursday that she will allow the current proclamation to expire on Feb. 15 at 11:59 p.m. She said it's time to reallocate state resources.

"We cannot continue to suspend duly enacted laws and treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely," Reynolds said in a statement. "After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly."

Omicron spike easing but nearly 800 still hospitalized

Her move comes as Iowa's spike in cases and hospitalizations from the omicron variant has begun to ease. Still, 794 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa as of Wednesday, while 109 patients required intensive care and 51 required ventilators.

Iowa recorded more than 150 additional COVID-19 deaths in its weekly update Wednesday, representing people who had died with the disease in previous weeks and months. The health department recorded just three additional flu deaths in its weekly flu report Jan. 28, bringing the total since last fall to 13.

Also, there were no nursing-home outbreaks reported of flu, compared to 109 reported of COVID-19.

Going forward, the state health department website will not include regular reports on COVID-19 hospitalizations or nursing-home outbreaks, as the current site does.

Garcia said Iowa will no longer require hospitals and nursing homes to report such data to the state, since they already report it to federal officials. Iowans wanting updates on those numbers will be referred to federal websites, she said. But the state report will include weekly updates on such things as positive tests, deaths and cases by county.

More: Exhaustion, anger, courage and sorrow in an Iowa ICU fighting another COVID wave

"More than half of the states have ratcheted this down," she said of COVID reporting.

Lina Tucker Reinders, executive director of the Iowa Public Health Association, called the shift "premature." She said in an interview Thursday that the move could give Iowans the false impression the pandemic is over.

Tucker Reinders said COVID-19 hospitalization numbers are the most concrete way for the public to see how serious the situation remains. Although hospitalization numbers will remain available on federal websites, those sites are harder to navigate than the state's current site is, she said.

"It will be something you have to search and dig for," she said.

The Iowa Democratic Party also criticized the governor's decision.

"Just because Kim Reynolds wants the pandemic to be over, doesn't mean it's over for Iowans," the party said in a statement. "Our doctors, nurses and caregivers are already stretched thin, and this irresponsible decision will make a bad situation much worse."

Iowa is shifting to 'a more sustainable approach'

Garcia told reporters the health department continues to take COVID-19 seriously.

"While our COVID-19 reporting will look different, Iowans should rest assured that the state health department will continue to review and analyze COVID-19 and other public health daily, just as we always have," she said. However, she added, "we must shift to a more sustainable approach that allows our public health professionals to manage this virus like we do others."

Among other issues, she said, the department needs to focus on rising mental health problems.

Garcia noted that the current surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant, appears to have peaked and is receding. She was asked if the governor's announcement means state leaders believe COVID-19 has become endemic, meaning it's a stable problem that doesn't interfere with everyday life.

"Ultimately, that will be the case," she said. "We're not quite there yet."

Reynolds has urged Iowans to get vaccinated, but she has long said the public needs to learn to live with COVID as a regular part of life.

"There's no reason for us to continue to fear COVID-19 any longer," she said in May 2021, when cases and hospitalizations had fallen. By then, nearly 6,000 Iowans had died from the disease. After two more surges, the total has now risen past 8,600.

As of Feb. 16, the state also will decommission the website vaccinateiowa.gov, which has resources for finding an appointment to get vaccinated. Tucker Reinders said she had no objection to that move since vaccinations are now readily available throughout Iowa.

'Iowans can trust data from our department'

Garcia noted that a recent report from State Auditor Rob Sand found no serious problems with the COVID-19 data reporting on the state website coronavirus.iowa.gov.

Sand, a Democrat, has criticized other actions by the Reynolds administration. Garcia chided reporters for not giving more attention to the auditor's findings on the COVID-19 website's accuracy.

Garcia told reporters she worries that Iowans' trust in public health officials has been "very much scarred. I want to rebuild that trust."

She hopes Sand's findings help allay such doubts.

"It's important Iowans know that they can trust data from our department," she said.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will end COVID disaster policies, websites