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New Iowa COVID-19 Cases Jump Past 2,500 & 12 More Deaths Reported
DES MOINES, Iowa — Twelve more Iowans have died from COVID-19 and 2,547 new cases of the virus have been diagnosed, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health’s website.
The new numbers reflect testing reported on the website over the 24 hours between 10:00 a.m. Thursday and 10:00 a.m. Friday, but several of the tests have been backdated on the site to the date the individual actually took the test. For example, there are now 1,388 positive tests attributed to Aug. 24th, when the original number reported on Monday was 471 for new cases.
During Gov. Kim Reynolds news conference on Thursday, she and State Medical Director Dr. Caitlin Pedati addressed the ever-changing data, talking about how results from antigen testing will now be included in the total number of cases — when previously the results from those tests were counted as inconclusive.
The state says there have been 11,129 antigen tests reported so far and the results show a positivity rate of 12.4%.
The number of new positive COVID-19 tests reported for the time period brings the total number of positive tests to 61,918. Over the last 24 hours, 3,243 test results have been reported to the IDPH.
Of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19, the IDPH reports 45,884 are recovered. That means 522 people were reported as recovered in the last 24 hours.
The overall positivity rate for testing to date is at 10%. That’s an increase from 9.7% the previous day.
These results stem from testing of 618,238 individuals thus far.
The data from the IDPH shows there have been 1,091 total deaths from the coronavirus in the state so far. Of those deaths, 588 were residents of long term care facilities. There are currently outbreaks at 36 long term care facilities in Iowa.
There are 299 hospitalized patients with the virus in the state. That’s down six from the previous day. Of those patients, 91 are in intensive care with 41 of them on ventilators.
Statewide, there are 3,010 inpatient hospital beds available and 445 ICU beds available. There are also 798 ventilators available across the state.
According to a message on the state’s COVID-19 website, hospitalization numbers may fluctuate due to long term care facilities moving residents to hospitals due to power outages from Aug. 10th’s derecho.
Nine Iowa counties currently have a 14-day rolling average positivity rate at or above 15%. This is the threshold that must be met before school districts can request to go to online-only learning. They are Carroll, Clinton, Crawford, Howard, Johnson, Lee, Marion, Plymouth, and Sioux counties. Plymouth County has 22.2% and Howard County has 20.1%.
Serology testing, which tests for antibodies that are present after someone has recovered from the illness, shows there are 3,018 people who tested positive out of the 48,307 people given the serology test so far.
These cases represent the newest diagnosed cases and not all of the cases statewide. The IDPH provides a status report on its monitoring efforts and testing here, which includes all of the positive tests.
The IDPH is updating this data throughout the day in order to provide more current information for Iowans.
The state is also releasing new data about the outcomes of recovered patients and those who have died from the virus — like how many suffered from pre-existing medical conditions.
A public hotline has been established for questions about COVID-19 in Iowa. It is available 24/7 by calling 2-1-1 or 1-800-244-7431. If you think you have or may have had the coronavirus and want to get tested, take the TestIowa assessment here.
