Gazette Daily News Podcast, February 10

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Feb. 10.

Thursday’s weather will continue the warmer but also windy weather from Wednesday, with a chance for some snow Thursday night. According to the National Weather Service it will be partly sunny with a high near 36 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Winds of 10 to 15 mph could gust as high as 20 mph during the day, but the wind gusts will increase to as high as 30 mph Thursday night. With that wind there will be a 50 percent chance of precipitation, with snow before 11 p.m. turning into rain after that.

COVID-19 outbreaks are still quite high in Iowa at long term care facilities, but cases and hospitalizations appear to be on the decline. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds cited these falling numbers Wednesday when explaining to reporters why she feels comfortable ending the state’s COVID-19 emergency health proclamation.

“We need to move on,” Reynolds told reporters at the Iowa State Capitol on Wednesday. “I think Iowans know what they need to do. They’ve demonstrated that, so it’s time to move on and treat this like we do other viruses.”

State officials will continue to encourage Iowans to stay home when sick, Reynolds said, but added the state saw “a significant decline” in coronavirus-related hospitalizations in recent weeks.

Iowa reported 12,833 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, with a seven-day positivity rate of 13.3 percent. That’s down more than 40 percent from last week’s total of 22,730 new cases. The positivity rate last week was 18.5 percent.

The number of patients hospitalized this past week with COVID-19 dropped to 617, compared to the 794 reported last week.

It should be noted that these hospitalization and case numbers still remain high compared to the average during the pandemic. Also the state reported 114 long-term care facilities with outbreaks, the highest amount since late 2020. The Governor does appear correct, however, that this latest outbreak is settling in a better place.

The final edition of the weekly North Liberty Leader was published Thursday.

Bob Woodward of Woodward Communications, which publishes the paper, told The Gazette some of the factors that led to the decision was the paper’s low subscriber count compared with the city’s population, as well as insufficient advertising support.

North Liberty is a city of just over 20,000 residents as of the last census count. The paper had 300 subscribers, Woodward said.

The paper has been publishing since 1976, according to the North Liberty Leader’s Facebook page. Subscribers with prepaid subscriptions will be contacted for refunds of the unused balance.

Woodward Communications discontinued publication of the Marion Times last summer. Woodward said the fate of the papers in Solon and Mount Vernon could be in jeopardy if business doesn’t improve. He even floated combining the Solon and Mount Vernon papers together as one solution to save both.

Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?

If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts.

Support for this news update was provided by New Pioneer Food Co-op. Celebrating 50 years as Eastern Iowa’s destination for locally and responsibly sourced groceries with stores in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids; and online through Co-op Cart at newpi.coop.