When the COVID-19 pandemic hit back in March, area nursing and care centers locked down their doors to prevent a spread of the novel coronavirus through the facilities. For the past six months, for most residents of care facilities, visits with family have been via telephone, through video ...

Tiffany Larson, a member of Rotary After Hours (RAH) poses with some of the donated detergent headed to the Webster City School District. The club is collecting fragrance free All detergent and Dreft laundry soap which will be donated to the schools to help launder cloth face masks for ...

New guidelines for visitation at Van Diest Medical Center were released Wednesday afternoon. VDMC officials said the faciloity remains committed to safety as a priority and works diligently to protect patients, staff and communities from exposure to COVID-19. The hospital continues to follow ...

Hamilton County Public Health will be holding flu clinics for children ages 6 months through 18 years every Wednesday from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. during the month of October. Family clinics will be offered by appointment only on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 25 from 12 ...

One staff member and one student in the Webster City School District tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, according to district officials. The announcement came at the board of education meeting Monday night. School Nurse Lea Ahrens reported that 7 staff members were in quarantine ...

It’s been six months since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Since that time, health care systems have been put to the test. Hospitals, clinics, public health agencies and others organizations concerned with the well being of Iowans, formed collaborations to prepare for a possible influx of ...

To mask or not to mask, that is the question as Hamilton County citizens face the continuing threat of COVID-19 and debate the ways to combat it. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention advocates prevention techniques such as maintaining a six foot social distance between yourself and ...

EAGLE GROVE — The Eagle Grove Community School District has cancelled school for Thursday and Friday due to multiple COVID-19 exposures reported within the district’s buildings, Superintendent Jess Toliver confirmed on Wednesday. He said the district is preparing to go to an online ...

Part of a six-part series on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamilton County Iowans have been living with the COVID-19 pandemic for the past six months, with business and school closings, social distancing, hand sanitizer and face coverings. Hamilton County has not experienced a large ...

In an exclusive 45 minute interview, Gov. Kim Reynolds explained the decisions she has made to guide the state during COVID pandemic. Excerpts of that interview are presented here. What have been the principles that have guided your response to the COVID pandemic? ‘‘These are some ...

The Webster City Rotary Club’s Annual Turkey Dinner returns on Sunday, Oct. 11. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, there will be some changes to keep the fundraiser safe for all. The dinner site has been changed to Briggs Woods Conference Center. There is no dine-in or carry-out as in ...

There’s still time to donate items to a program that will held some of the county’s littlest residents and their families. Love a Little, Keep ‘Em Clean and Dry is a new diaper and baby necessity drive that Jamie Nielsen of Jewell is spearheading. “About 30 percent of the ...

Despite the pandemic, Webster City Community Theatre has found a new way to bring live performances to their audiences. Even though the performing arts center is shuttered right now, the troupe will move to an outside venue Sunday to perform three short plays. Billed as an "Outdoor Pop-Up ...

This week's outdoor movie will be shown on Saturday instead of the usual Friday night screening. Officials with the Webster Theater said the move was made so as not to conflict with the Lynx home football game Friday night. This week, the classic musical "The Wizard of Oz" will be shown on ...

By ANNE BLANKENSHIP ablankenship@freemanjournal.net The Hamilton County Board of Supervisors was poised to vote on a county-wide mask ordinance Tuesday morning, but found that the ordinance would only have affected those in unincorporated areas of the county. Towns and cities in the county ...

As of Tuesday morning, there were 204 positive cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton County with 183 people who have recovered or who have been released from isolation, according to Shelby Kroona, Hamilton County Public Health administrator. She gave a COVID-19 update during the Tuesday morning ...

The committee for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Hamilton County announced Tuesday that an in-person event will not be held this year. “We were hoping we could have it in August, but the American Cancer Society and we as a Committee felt we couldn’t do it safely. However, ...

By Ogden Newspapers Hair cuts. Massages. Tattoos. Pedicures. Manicures. These were just some of the luxuries lost as businesses faced mandatory shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet as states began to reopen last month, most areas saw the resurgence of these businesses as longtime ...

Fort Dodge Correctional Facility reported 39 cases of COVID-19 among inmates and another five among staff Monday, just five days after the facility’s first case was discovered Wednesday. The new outbreak outnumbers all COVID-19 cases that were documented in Iowa’s entire prison system up ...

FORT DODGE — The first group of students to check in for the 2020-2021 academic year at Iowa Central Community College on Monday walked into a whole new system. The usual crowded scene of parents and students in the lobby of a college building was replaced with a widely spaced series of ...