Iowa saw its second-highest daily increase in COVID-19 cases on Friday, as the Iowa Department of Public Health reported another 744 Iowans had tested positive for the virus during the 24-hour period ending at 10 a.m. Only the daily total on May 2 of 757 exceeded the number of new cases reported on Friday.
Part of the explanation for the high number of cases is the number of test results — 9,146 — reported between 10 a.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Friday. But the number also reflects Iowa’s high positivity rate.
The positivity rate is the percentage of people being tested who are confirmed as having COVID-19. The World Health Organization recommends that a community not relax COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions and begin to reopen until it has had 14 consecutive days with a daily positivity rate of 5 percent or lower.
Iowa, of course, never had shelter-in-place restrictions and didn’t have 14 days at the recommended positivity rate before Gov. Kim Reynolds began lifting the restrictions that were in place. Reynolds often cited the state’s then-declining positivity rate as being in line with IDPH and CDC guidance for reopening. The CDC published guidance recommends a state have “downward trajectory (or near-zero percent positivity rates) of positive tests as a percentage of total tests over a 14-day period (flat or increasing volume of tests) ” before moving forward with its first phase of reopening.
Iowa’s average daily positivity rate for the last seven days was 8.6 percent.
On Friday morning, IDPH reported another 23 residents of Johnson County and 24 residents of Linn County tested positive for COVID-19 during the 24-hour period ending at 10 a.m. The new cases extend the number of consecutive days with double-digit case increases in Johnson County to 24 days.
The daily positivity rate for tests reported on Friday morning was 5.3 percent in Johnson County and 4.8 percent in Linn County.
IDPH reported another three deaths from the virus on Friday. A resident of Linn County was the deceased. The new cases bring the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 742. Eighty-three residents of Linn County have died from the virus so far, as have eight residents of Johnson County.
According to IDPH, 25,750 of the Iowans who have tested positive for COVID-19 are now considered recovered. The department considers anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 to be recovered after 28 days, unless it is informed otherwise.
