032620 504 Gov. Kim Reynolds today expanded the state's disaster health proclamation. At Reynolds daily coronavirus briefing, Reynolds said she was prohibiting elective non-essential surgical and dental procedures and expanding the breadth of the state's retail closures. All existing closures including restaurants and bars will be now be extended another week until April 7 th , as now also book stores, clothing and shoe stores, jewelry, luggage, cosmetic, perfume and beauty supply stores and

032620 404 Gov. Kim Reynolds today expanded the state's disaster health proclamation, halting elective non-essential surgical and dental procedures and expanding the breadth of the state's retail closures. All existing closures, including restaurants and bar closures, were extended an additional week to April 7. That is effective as of 10 p.m. Thursday. She also ordered the closure of additional retail — book stores; clothing and shoe stores; jewelry stores; luggage stores; cosmetic, perfume and

032620 304 COVID-19 cases have increased to 179 in Iowa The Iowa Department of Public Health says 34 more people have tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Drive-through testing for COVID-19 will start in Woodbury County tomorrow. But, testing isn’t available for everyone. It’s being held in an undisclosed location for patients with recommendations from their doctors. “So, we will not be able to test all 103,000-plus of Siouxland residents. We’re

On this edition of The Exchange, we talk with Tyler Brock of Siouxland District Health about the number of COVID-19 cases in Woodbury County and how to keep ourselves safe during the pandemic. We also speak with Sioux City Community Schools Superintendent Paul Gausman about the outlook for students, who are currently out of school because of the coronavirus, to get back to class this school year. The Senate has passed a two-trillion dollar stimulus package to help employers, workers, and others

032520 504 A Sioux City homeless shelter closed early for the season, today (Wednesday) because of COVID-19. Lindsay Landrum (LAN-drum) is the executive director of the Warming Shelter in Sioux City. She says the shelter doesn’t have the ability to quarantine people or staff if they become exposed to the new coronavirus. She told the residents this morning (yesterday/Wednesday morning) that they needed to leave. Typically the temporary shelter is open through April 30th. Landrum says she’s

032520 432 Monona County has its first case of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. This is the fourth such case in Northwest Iowa. Woodbury County was the first in the region to have a positive case announced over the weekend, followed by Sioux Countynthe following day. A second case was confirmed in Woodbury County this week. The Monona County individual is self-isolating at home, according to a press release from Burgess Public Health in Onawa. The age and gender of the person are not known,

The state of Iowa reports 21 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 for a total of 145. This comes the day after Governor Kim Reynolds announced the state's first death linked to the coronavirus outbreak. The victim is a resident of Dubuque County who was between 61 and 80 years old. Another news conference is planned for 2:30 this afternoon. Gov. Pete Ricketts is urging Nebraska residents to quarantine themselves for at least two weeks if they've recently traveled anyplace that has seen a big

Because of concerns surrounding the new coronavirus, Iowa’s Secretary of State Paul Pate pushed back the date of a special election for Woodbury County Supervisor. Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, a Republican, stepped down after residency issues. Two candidates vying for the seat, Democratic State Representative Tim Kacena and Republican Justin Wright, a teacher at North High, will face off in an election pushed back from April to July 7 th . Woodbury County Election Commissioner Pat Gill talked to

Before the threat of the new coronavirus, the biggest concern of school districts this time of year might be “how do you make up snow days”? Snow days are nothing compared to the current reality facing students, staff, teachers and administrators. The head of Sioux City Community Schools, Superintendent Dr. Paul Gausman, gives us more information about what the area’s biggest school district faces right now. He starts his conversation with Siouxland Public Media’s Sheila Brummer by answering a

The COVID-10 pandemic has forced many local governments and groups to find creative ways to conduct official business. On Monday, the Sioux City council held a meeting with social distancing. Council Member Alex Watters chose to attend the meeting by phone. He is in self isolation and shares his thoughts on the new coronavirus, the state’s response and what issue is keeping him up at night. Siouxland Public Media’s Sheila Brummer reached him by phone the day after the council meeting. Watters