U.S. Congresswoman Cindy Axne

As Governor Kim Reynolds and physicians urged Iowans to take COVID-19 precautions seriously during a press conference Thursday, the Congresswoman for Iowa’s Third District believes more needs to be done to lower the number of new cases as hospitalizations increasingly grow.

Iowa’s COVID-19 hospitalizations has almost doubled in the last month, according to state statistics, with 839 patients hospitalized and 188 patients in intensive care units as of Thursday. Twenty seven of Iowa’s 99 counties have a 14-day average positivity rate below 15% as of Thursday as well, and Governor Reynolds said this week that medical facilities can’t keep up if the current case rate continues over the next few weeks. Representative Cindy Axne (D) tells Raccoon Valley Radio that all along she’s believed the state needs to put stronger mask policies in place, and follow the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s guidance as they have recommended a mask mandate, “The numbers of people hospitalized has doubled, our average cases have gone up from hundreds to thousands. The governor needs to do more, I have called on her, she has yet to respond to me on what is Plan B when our hospital beds fill up, and guess what? They are filling up, there are places now where those beds are full, so we need some better direction.”

Axne also mentioned that the Democratic candidates’ lack of in-person events during the pandemic in effort to keep voters safe might have cost them a few votes in the election, but she also points to a recent study from Stanford University that links President Donald Trump’s rallies to more than 30,000 additional COVID-19 cases and at least 700 additional deaths.