The surge in COVID-19 cases in Johnson County continued on Monday, with the Iowa Department of Public Health reporting another 122 positive test results for county residents between 10 a.m. on Sunday and 10 a.m. on Monday. The department’s official estimate of the county’s 14-day positivity rate for its COVID-19 tests at 10 a.m. was 22.7 percent.
The University of Iowa published its latest COVID-19 update on Monday. Since Friday, another 329 cases of COVID-19 were self-reported by the UI community. The new cases include 326 students and three staff members.
Since the new semester began, a total of 922 UI students and 13 staff members have self-reported testing positive for the virus.
According to UI, there are currently 17 residence hall students in quarantine and 78 residence hall students in self-isolation. Quarantine is used to “keep someone who might have been exposed to COVID-19 away from others,” while self-isolation is designed “to separate people infected with the virus (those who are symptomatic and those with no symptoms) from people who are not infected,” the update explained.
Iowa State University also released a COVID-19 update on Monday. Last week, the second week of classes in Ames, another 503 students and staff tested positive for the virus. Previously, ISU had reported 305 cases.
Despite that climbing number of cases, ISU announced on Monday it intends to permit 25,000 fans to attend its first home football game at Jack Trice Stadium on Sept. 12.
In June the Story County Board of Health asked ISU to prohibit spectators at fall sporting events to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
The New York Times on Monday ranked Ames and Iowa City number one and two, respectively, on its list of “metro areas with the greatest number of new cases, relative to their population, in the last two weeks.”
Statewide, the surge in COVID-19 cases continued on Monday with another 611 cases being confirmed during the 24-hour period ending at 10 a.m., according to IDPH. The new cases bring the total number of Iowans who have tested positive for the virus to 64,713. Fifteen new cases were reported in Linn County during that time period.
The department also reported a total of 1,112 deaths due to the virus as of 10 a.m. on Monday. That is two more deaths than it was reporting at the same time on Sunday.
