Two COVID deaths in Worth County, IDPH changes way positive tests are reported

MASON CITY — The active COVID-19 case count continues to slide down in north-central Iowa.

In the 24 hours leading up to 11 o’clock this morning, 18 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in north-central Iowa while 76 more recoveries were reported. There were two deaths reported in that same time frame, both in Worth County, bringing up the county’s total to six during the pandemic. The active case count in the ten-county listening area dropped from 1776 on Monday to 1715 on Tuesday.

In Cerro Gordo County, three new cases were reported while 21 more people have recovered, moving the case count down from 539 to 521.

As we reported yesterday, the active case count in north-central Iowa almost doubled over the weekend, and the Iowa Department of Public Health says that’s due to a change in the way they are compiling their data. Department of Public Health public information officer Sarah Ekstrand says individuals often test multiple times during the course of a COVID-19 infection, resulting in them having multiple positive tests.

She says because the department recently changed their reporting to reflect overall tests versus individual tests, the increase in the positive test number was to be expected. Ekstrand adds that it’s also a reflection of how much testing is being done throughout the state.

The number of people hospitalized in the north-central Iowa medical region is up three to 18. The number of patients in an intensive care unit increased from one to four, with three of those patients on a ventilator

 

 

Deaths	Total	Underlying Cause	Contributing Factor	New
Cerro Gordo	80	68	12
Butler	31	28	3
Floyd	39	30	9
Franklin	19	18	1
Hancock	29	24	5
Kossuth	54	47	7
Mitchell	40	38	2
Winnebago	30	25	5
Worth	6	5	1	2
Wright	31	26	5
Area Total	359	309	50	2

 

 

Confirmed Cases	Total	New
Cerro Gordo	5301	3
Butler	1656	2
Floyd	1617	1
Franklin	1181	0
Hancock	1464	3
Kossuth	2060	5
Mitchell	1298	0
Winnebago	1365	1
Worth	686	0
Wright	1788	3
Area Total	18416	18

 

 

Recovered	Total	New
Cerro Gordo	4700	21
Butler	1494	3
Floyd	1383	2
Franklin	1024	7
Hancock	1308	10
Kossuth	1801	12
Mitchell	1146	3
Winnebago	1206	10
Worth	620	0
Wright	1660	8
Area Total	16342	76

 

 

Active Cases	2/23/21	2/22/21	2/19/21	2/1/21	1/1/21	12/1/20	11/1/20	10/1/20
	Tuesday	Monday	Last Friday	February 1st	January 1st	December 1st	November 1st	October 1st
Cerro Gordo	521	539	544	410	549	1807	477	192
Butler	131	132	139	211	175	517	82	20
Floyd	195	196	202	119	130	550	60	48
Franklin	138	145	146	128	133	305	42	18
Hancock	127	134	141	139	235	408	134	21
Kossuth	205	212	216	260	269	535	176	161
Mitchell	112	116	114	104	173	447	119	69
Winnebago	129	138	141	125	123	359	192	119
Worth	60	62	60	84	126	118	46	27
Wright	97	102	105	128	183	410	182	67
Area Total	1715	1776	1808	1708	2096	5526	1510	742