ISB Blog

To Our Valued Customers, Employees, and Friends,

The World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic. This happens when a new virus emerges to infect people and can spread between people sustainably and it spreads worldwide because there is little to no pre-existing immunity against it. Given the severity of the current situation we feel it’s important to communicate clearly with all of our stakeholders.

What does this mean for Iowa State Bank (ISB)? This means our organization’s Pandemic plan will go into place. We have different triggers for specific procedures and we will keep monitoring the situation and let staff know what the new procedures are. At this point Jefferson County Public Health has confirmed that Iowa has 16 cases, most of which are in Johnson County. Fortunately we have not heard of any further transmissions. That being said, ISB Pandemic procedures state that our employees’ travel must be restricted from major international airports and travel to affected areas that are experiencing rapid transmission. These areas include California, Washington state, New York state, Chicago (and surrounding counties) and Massachusetts. This could change rapidly and we will attempt to inform everyone when/if it does.

What should we be doing? You will soon see informational signs inside the bank regarding general health guidelines from the CDC on how to mitigate exposure. You’ll note that most of this information is common sense:

• If you are sick, stay home! It is recommended to stay home until you are free of fever (100.4 or greater using an oral thermometer), signs of fever, and any other symptoms for at least 24 hours.
• Symptoms of COVID-19 can come on suddenly. For our employees, if you start to experience these symptoms at work, please isolate yourself and tell your supervisor.
• ISB has provided hand sanitizer and tissues for your use, however, washing your hands with soap and water has been proven the best method. ISB has also supplied the teller line with rubber gloves for handling currency and other transactions from the public.
• If a family member falls ill with COVID-19 you should consider practicing “social distancing”. Employees should inform a supervisor about any potential exposure.
• We encourage utilizing ISB’s new online banking and mobile deposit services to limit trips to the bank. These services work very well and are provided at no cost to our customers. This is particularly valuable to customers practicing “social distancing”.

Be assured that ISB is closely monitoring the situation, and we will notify our customers when/if action must be taken to safeguard our staff and the public.

Aaron Kness, President/CEO