Reynolds says now is not the time to let up on mitigation measures

JOHNSTON — During her press conference this morning, Governor Reynolds says now is not the time to let up on mitigation measures as Iowa expects to see the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise. 

She says, “As we’ve been saying, we project that Iowa’s peak will occur later this month and until then we anticipate our number of positive cases and unfortunately our deaths will continue to rise as well.”)

Reynolds says the number of people recovering from the coronavirus is positive.   “The number of Iowans who have successfully recovered from COVID-19 continues to increase daily, and later this week we will share information about what Iowa’s epi curve is telling us about our onset of illness. These signs are encouraging but are not reason enough for us to let up on our mitigation efforts at this time.”

Reynolds says staff and residents of long-term care facilities account for more than 10% of the COVID-positive cases in Iowa with 53% of all deaths are residents of long-term care facilities. She says it’s important that testing for essential workers and vulnerable Iowans needs to be prioritized.   “When an essential worker tests positive for COVID-19, local public health officials are able to conduct contact tracing to determine any potential exposures that may have occurred and isolate those individuals as soon as possible to prevent further spread of the virus. This is also why we continue to urge all Iowans to stay at home as much as possible, work from home if you can, practice social distancing any time you are in public, don’t gather in groups of more than 10 people, and isolate at home if you or any member of your household is sick. These important steps will significantly reduce the risk of further exposing our essential workers and vulnerable Iowans to the virus.”

Reynolds provided updates in each region of the state, including Region 2 which includes north-central Iowa.  “There was one COVID-19 patient hospitalized, no new patients were admitted in the last 24 hours, one is in an ICU and one was on a ventilator. There were 235 in-patient beds, six ICU beds and 24 ventilators available for patient care.”

According to the newest numbers released this morning, there are 123 new COVID-19 cases in the state, bringing Iowa’s total to 1710 during the pandemic. Two more deaths were confirmed, one in Linn County with the other in Muscatine County. 142 people are currently hospitalized.