Cases which recently resulted in a mask mandate. This is 30 minutes from des moiness. Governor reynolds good morning. Over the last seven days iowa has seen an increase of more than 22,000 new covid19 cases and an average statewide Positivity Rate of 17. 5 . This is a decrease from the seven days prior when new cases totaled 36,000. Cases totaled 36,000. And the average Positivity Rate was 28 . At a county level, were seeing that Positivity Rates are beginning to stabilize in maybe areas and these many areas and these are welcome signs and while we may be cautiously optimistic, we have a whole lot of work to do to bring the numbers down to a level where we can safely manage the virus while getting life back to normal. Hospitalizations remain high across the state. But yesterday was the first day and weeks where we saw a slight decrease in the overall number of iowans hospitalized. So this gives us hope as well. But one day is far, far, far from a downward trend. Over the next week, it will be critical that we see hospitalization rates begin to stabilize. Every day we are monitoring it closely and working directly with hospitals and Health Care Systems, to understand their situations and assist as needed. The vast majority of those hospitals continue to be of those hospitalized continue to be older iowans, currently 74 of all hospital patients with covid19 are age 60 and older. Which again underscores the importance of taking measures to protect those that are most at risk, whether due to age or Underlying Health conditions. As we approach the holiday season, and even small gatherings occur among family members, we need to be mindful of how our behaviors could impact others. Give you an update today on longterm care facility outbreaks. Later today an additional 20 longterm care facility outbreaks will be reported and just as a reminder, a facility moves to outbreak stat us when three residents in the facility test positive for the virus. That will bring the total number of active longterm care outbreaks at this time to 114 and i think we have somewhere around 443 longterm care facilities. This afternoon we also will do an update to the longterm care dashboard on coronavirus. Iowa. Gov. It will report the number of new cases, the Additional Information will report the number of new cases over the past 14 days and facilities with active outbreaks. News of longterm care outbreaks is very concerning, as it impacts our most vulnerable population, and as we saw earlier this year, the consequences of covid19 in these facilities can be devastating for residents and their families. The department of Public Health and members of my team are also in regular communication with the longterm care associations and partners on how best to help facilitate during these challenges times. Or ensuring that they that adequate Infection Control measures are in place to make sure that they are in place is critical to preventing the virus from entering a facility or stopping its spread after an exposure. Training is available on Infection Control, appropriate p. P. E. Use and emergency planning. And in an effort to more effectively assist longterm care facilities with staffing concerns, the state has provided updated guidance on preparation and implementation of emergency staffing plans. The state high genic lab continues to support our longterm care facilities with testing needs, including when an outbreak occurs. So in addition, the lab is also providing antigen text cards to support routine surveillance testing and more than 240,000 cards have been distributed to facilities across the state for this purpose. Im also announcing today that 14ds million of cares funding will be 14 million of cares funding will be allocated to associated with the increased cost related to testing and staffing. Like our hospitals, its important that we also provide assistance to longterm care facilities at this time and that every iowan continues to do their part to protect the most vulnerable of our Health Care Work force. Also, as positive cases have increased, so has the caseload for investigations conducted by Public Health departments, whether at the state level or locally. The volume of cases at this time requires Additional Resources and as we announced earlier this week, we are working to increase our Case Investigation resources. In the meantime, its important that iowans are prepared in case they or someone in their family tests positive. So today ive asked the doctor to help inform iowans about what they need to do if a member of their immediate household tests positive for covid19. Dr. Pedati thank you. I want to talk a little bit about two traditional Public Health activities. We do for a variety of diseases and have done for a long time. And those are both Case Investigation and Contact Tracing. So when we talk about Case Investigation, were talking about an individual who has received a positive covid result, so theyre infected with the covid19 virus, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. We reach out to those people and ask questions about them and we do that for a couple of reasons. Partly because we want to understand a little bit about these people and who the virus is feaktsing. So your age, maybe your Underlying Health conditions, what you do for a living, and that helps us better understand a virus that, remember, we havent known about for just under quite a year now. So as we get a little bit more information about the individual and who they are, we also try and understand a little bit about what activities they might have participated in that could have put them at risk for becoming sick. Because this is a person to person virus, it can be a little bit hard to know that for certain, especially as people engage in increasing numbers of activities. Which we do see. When weve identified that person who is a case so, thats somebody who is infected with covid, the Public Health recommendation is to stay home for 10 days and we call that isolation. And so anybody who has received a positive result indicating that you have covid19, we ask that you stay home for a 10day period, either from the beginning of your symptoms or from the day you got that test positive, if you never had symptoms. And we do that to limit the spread of the virus to other people. Now, in addition to that, in the course of those conversations, we ask people about who else theyve been around and as numbers have increased, weve increasingly focused on highrisk situations which includes households. We know that households are a place where all kinds of illnesses can spread quickly, whether were talking about flu virus. When we live together, theres more chance for a virus to move between us. We want to help do what we can to protect other people who may have been exposed and are at higher risk from becoming sick. So that means we start to talk about quarantine, which is the recommendation for Healthy People who have been exposed to somebody with covid, to stay home themselves. And we ask people to do that for 14 days, regardless of whether or not they have a negative test, and the reason is because you could still be incubating the virus or you just might not have become sick yet. And so by asking people who are sick to isolate and stay home, and by asking people who are exposed to someone with covid to quarantine and stay home, what were trying to do is limit the spread of this virus from one person to the other. And so its important that everybody continues to follow that Public Health recommendation. Now, even if you dont fit into either of those two categories that i just described, people who we asked to isolate or people who we ask to quarantine, i want to remind everybody that there are things that we can all do to help limit the spread of this virus and optimize outcomes for vulnerable iowans and maintain our Health Care Resources. I know youve heard this before, but that continues to be things like frequent hand washing, using face coverings and social distancing. And those things are going to continue to be really important for the coming months. I want to acknowledge that i know that there are many people who are tired and that this has been hard. But there are some good things that were starting to learn around vaccines and around immunity. So i would ask every media outlet, every person watching at home, please help Public Health your Public Health professionals, your Health Care Professionals share these messages about what you can do to stay healthy. I would think about the people you love and the people who love you and recognize that there are things that we can all do to help keep people safe and healthy, especially during this holiday season. Public health care is very much about every Single Person here in iowa and were going to continue to Work Together to help keep people safe and healthy this holiday season. Thank you. Governor reynolds thank you, dr. Pedati. This information, i think, will be very helpful for families to know what to do if theyre faced with this situation. Especially as we have our College Students returning home over the coming days for the thanksgiving holiday. So i appreciate your information. Since march, as dr. Pedati indicated, youve heard countless times from me, from dr. Pedati from the Iowa Department of Public Health and from your local Public Health officials about the things that you can do to reduce the risk of getting and spreading covid19. Social distance. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay home if youre sick. All very simple steps that truly are the best defense against the virus. And though you may have grown tired of hearing it, its even more important now to blanket every corner of the state with this message so that we can help stop the spread of the virus while keeping our businesses open, our kids in school, and our hospitals stable and our essential work force healthy. In partnership with the Iowa Broadcasters Association and the Iowa Newspaper Association, we were able to leverage special programs and pricing to deliver Public Service announcements through iowas local newspapers, radio stations and television channels. Keeping important messages front and center. And i enlisted the help of some familiar iowans who are uniquely qualified to help carry the message from former governor and u. S. Secretary of ag, tom vill sack, who also knows firsthand the importance of bringing iowaaans together for the common good. The c. E. O. Of uihc. And an iowa nurse, each who have front line a front line perspective of how the virus is impacting our state and understand better than most why its so important that every iowan does their part. Dan gable, legendary iowa wrestling coach, olympic Gold Medalist and recipient recent recipient of the president ial medal of freedom. Dan knows what it takes to win, even in some of the most challenging situations. And carson king, a role model for doing the right thing for the greater good and the incredible difference that it can make for others. So i want to thank each of them for being a part of this campaign and helping us engage iowans at this most critical time. And now im pleased to share one of the Television Spots hat will go out this week. Covid19 isnt stronger than iowans resolve to overcome it. Together we can stop the spread of the virus. And get life back to normal. By taking simple steps to protect ourselves and others. Wear a mask and maintain social distance. Wash your hands and disinfect commonly used items. Stay home if youre sick and get tested if you think you have covid19. If you do, isolate from others to avoid spreading the virus. And get the flu shot so you can prevent further illness and preserve our Health Care Resources. Doing these things will help protect you. And those at most risk for serious illness due to age or other health conditions. The health of all iowans relies on every single one of us. We have a personal responsibility to do everything we can to protect each other. And keep our state healthy and strong. Lets step up. Lets step up. Lets step up. Lets step up. Lets step up and stop the spread together. Governor reynolds the Iowa Broadcasters Association is now distributing to Television Spots and a root spot, for this than its and a root spot, to more than its 200 member stations spots across the state. The spots are scheduled to air through mid march. And earlier this month we worked with the Iowa Newspaper Association where they began placing print and digital ads in its more than 250 member nupes and Online Publications across the state and even further expanded our reach to include spanish and specialty publications. I thank you for reaching residents of iowa and cultural fairs for producing it and katie carson and coach gable to help stop the spread. In closing today, i want to make sure you are aware of the upcoming holiday areas. All sites will be open for normal testing hours monday through wednesday except for the Council Bluffs site which will close at 2 00 p. M. On wednesday, november 25 so we can get the samments and processed overnight. And this will ensure that individuals that are tested will get their results. All test iowa drive sites will be closed on thanksgiving day but all sites will be be reopen on friday, november 27 from 8 00 until 4 00. And i do want to thank the state hygienic labs and all the test iowa staff making it possible for people to be tested over the holidays. It is a critical time for our state and i want you to know how much we appreciate your service to your fellow citizens not only next week. And well open it up for questions. Can you explain the 20 additional nursing homes. Are these delayed reports or something that happened this week . Governor reynolds you want to talk about that . I dont want to misrepresent. It is as people report cases to us. We saw almost 30,000 reported cases to us last week and when we think about what the definition of outbreak that we have used in a longterm setting looking at three or more and as we said before and seeing it across the board and this is a reflection of increasing activity that we have been notified of our facilities to keep track of. Governor reynolds as soon as we get the information, they move into that status. They report and go through the system. And this is based on the number of residents and if they have three residents that test in the 14day period, it moves into outbreak. And they have they cant have one positive test in 28 days that allows in order to move off of outbreak status. They still remain on. They have to go 28 days without a positive days with the residents in order to move off of outbreak status. You said the 14 days is for staffing and for testing. An ing homes said they lack dequate testing. Governor reynolds i can bring jake from Homeland Security next week and talk about the stockpiles that we have with the p. P. E. And the amount of items that we have and how long this would be able to provide adequate protection based on the numbers we are seeing. They need to reach out and we are providing the p. P. E. To them. There is a mechanism that they go to to ask for it and we have located different dropoff sites and we put that in, earlier spring, i think, spring or the is when we allocate dropoff sites. If you are a nursing home out there and experiencing that, go through the system and let us know and get you the p. P. E. Are you confident that tyson foods was telling you and your team about its iferts to protect its workers with lawsuits from family members who have died and if there is any need of greater oversight . Governor reynolds we work with osha. I think we were one of the first osha teams to get into these sites. So wevided p. C. R. Testing could get into these facilities and get the workers tested so we know who was testing positive and negative and start to separate so we could provide them the confidence to know that the people they were working with tested negative and provide them that information in a timely manner. We tested a lot of individuals in a short period of time to provide them the information they feeded. Do you think the company were thwarting those good efforts . Governor reynolds this is what we are doing to help and this is critical and we have to do everything we can in our power to make sure we are protecting our work force and in order to do that, the way i could help from a state perspective was to give them the testing which was very scares. Every state was scrambling to get the tests to be able to test processing plants and their constituents in general. We knew if we were going to keep the foot supply chain moving, we needed to figure out a way to work with these facilities to provide them the information to protect their work force. We stepped up and did that. This is a question for the doctor. In your statement you seem to imply that people arent complying with isolation guidelines. What has that meant to the states response in recent weeks . And the contact tracers are only talking about helpful contacts . We recognize that everybody is feeling fatigue. And we know that it is hard. We know the things that we ask them and the people to change their behaviors and actions. Whether we are talking about covid or whe