Hunter
08/10/20
As Johnson County’s face mask mandate goes into effect today, the Public Health Department is working to increase the contact-tracing team, as schools get ready to reopen later this month.
Sam Jarvis, community health division manager with JCPHD, tells the Iowa City Press-Citizen that they are ramping up their efforts in general. They’re in the process of hiring a third full-time disease prevention specialist and hope to up their temporary contact team from 27 to about 50.
Director Dave Koch has gone on record, strongly believing that the county will have a surge in COVID-19 cases as University of Iowa students come to the area.
A letter Koch wrote outlining his concerns was sent to the Governor’s Office with the Iowa City Community School District’s request for a waiver so that they could begin the school year exclusively on line. The state rejected the waiver request, and the district has now pushed back the start of the school year to September 8th.