Iowa City man wraps up coronavirus monitoring after trip to Asia

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - Wally Heitman marks his travels around the world with pins.

© Provided by Cedar Rapids KCRG-TV Wally Heitman points out his travels on a map in his Iowa City home on March 2, 2020. (Rebecca Varliek/KCRG)

For every stop he makes on his trips, he puts a pin in its spot on a large map of the world in his bedroom, and he has a few recent ones to add.

"I haven't put my pins in for this trip because we ran out of pins,” Heitman said.

But Heitman, the former mayor of University Heights who now resides in Iowa City, does have one heck of a story. He left in January for a month-long cruise around Asia, but those travels came to an abrupt stop about midway through the itinerary when no countries would let his Holland America ship port.

"They were afraid of the coronavirus on board, even though we'd had no passengers or crew had given any indication there was any coronavirus,” Heitman said.

After making just one stop in a 13-day period, the ship finally ported in Cambodia, where Heitman tested negative for coronavirus.

After he left the ship, Heitman spent a few more days in Cambodia, waiting to catch flights back to Iowa, and he eventually returned home on February 23.

"All's well that ends well,” Heitman said.

Heitman’s “adventure,” as he called it, doesn’t quite end there. He had been in communication with the Iowa Department of Public Health during the tail end of his trip. Once he got home, he had to take his temperature twice a day and text the readings to an employee at the Johnson County Public Health department.

"They said I was not quarantined, but the order from the doctor said they did not want me on any public transportation like airplanes or trains or buses or anything,” Heitman said.

With the exception of a few trips to the grocery store, Heitman has stayed home from the time he returned, putting a raincheck on visits with friends and opting out of attending a Hawkeye basketball game this week.

However, he has wrapped up his health monitoring. Johnson County Public Health cleared him last Friday.

"I'm still going to kind of use a little sense here for the next week or so, just to make sure,” Heitman, a retired nurse, said.

Across the state, 39 people total have completed their monitoring like Heitman, and the Iowa Department of Public Health is tracking five other people, as of Monday.

No one in Iowa has tested positive for the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus, and Johnson County Public Health said there also hasn’t been any indication of community transmission of coronavirus in the state.

Sam Jarvis, Johnson County’s community health manager, is still encouraging people to take proactive steps to prevent coronavirus and similar sicknesses.

“Cover your cough, stay home if you’re sick, and make sure that you wash your hands and perform routine cleaning,” Jarvis said.