Four additional cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Montgomery County, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to fifteen (15). Health and Emergency Management officials says all four cases confirmed Saturday are due to close contact with a previously confirmed positive case. All four cases are adults (18-40) and currently isolating at home.

The current stats for Montgomery County (as of Saturday afternoon) show:

• 4 new confirmed cases
• 8 recovered cases
• 2 deaths
• 15 positive cases
• 855 individuals tested.

Montgomery County Serology testing data show:

• 3 positive
• 70 negative
• 73 tested

“Now is the time more than ever to continue to follow social distancing guidelines and avoiding large crowds,” said Montgomery County Public Health Administrator Samantha Beeson. As always, remember to stay home if you’re sick and wash your hands often.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State health officials in Pennsylvania have neighboring Delaware and three other states to the travel quarantine recommendation aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 in the commonwealth. Officials say people who have traveled to Delaware, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return to Pennsylvania.

The state earlier issued the recommendation for self-quarantine for people returning to the commonwealth from 15 other states. Another 17 deaths attributed to the coronavirus were announced, bringing the total to 6,897.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The number of women having abortions in Iowa climbed last year, a turnaround that critics blame on the state’s controversial decision to withdraw from a federally funded family planning program. After decades of plummeting abortion numbers, the state last year recorded 3,566 abortions. That is 8% more than the previous year.

The Des Moines Register reports last year’s increase came after the number of Iowa abortions dropped 56% from 2008 to 2018.

The Iowa Department of Public Health today (Saturday) reports six more deaths from COVID-19, for a total of 748, and an increase of 743 positive test results over yesterday (Friday), at 34,499 altogether. The number of hospitalizations from the Coronavirus continue to surge, also. The COVID-19 dashboard, Saturday, showed one more case of the virus in Cass County, bringing the total here to 28. Adair County has one more positive case of COVID-19 for a total of 17. Audubon County’s case increase went from 16 on Friday to 18 by Saturday. Guthrie County increased by three cases to 75. Shelby County had one more positive COVID-19 case as of Saturday, for a total of 120, and Montgomery County had one more positive test result, for a total of 12.

IDPH say nine more people were hospitalized since Friday, for a total of 178, two more people were placed in Intensive Care (56 total), and four more were admitted to a hospital, for a total of 23. There are 25 patients on ventilators, down from 26 the previous day. In southwest/western Iowa, RMCC Region 4, there were two more people hospitalized (for a total of 7), one less person in an ICU (3 total), and three new hospital admissions (compared to 0 in the previous report).

Statewide:

• 369,503 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19
• 26,104 have recovered
• 333,714 have tested negative
• Long-Term Care facility outbreaks are up to 16 (compared to 15 yesterday); 335 patients/staff at LTC’s have tested positive (an increase of 36); 98 have recovered (11 more than Friday), and 396 persons have died at an LTC in Iowa (4 more than on Friday).

County-by-County COVID-19 cases, and the number of person who have recovered (   ). (Changes from Friday are highlighted)

• Cass: 28 (19)
• Adair: 17 (12)
• Adams: 8 (8)
• Audubon: 18 (15)
• Guthrie: 75 (57)
• Montgomery: 12 (8)
• Pottawattamie: 821 (661)
• Shelby: 120 (109)

(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City police chief Rex Mueller was part of a local group that participated in a discussion with people from across the state in Ames Thursday about community relations between police and minority groups. Mueller says the statewide group will address the concerns brought up since the death of a Minnesota man in police custody. “Iowa is forming with policy agency heads and local advocates an equity task force to figure out and find out how we can better serve in the wake of George Floyd’s passing,” Mueller says.

Local N-A-A-C-P President Ike Rayford and Monique Scarlet of Unity in the Community went with Mueller to the event.”I’m hoping that we learn things that we might not be doing or things that we could be doing better. But on the other side of that…Ike tells me that when he goes to N-A-A-C-P conventions, the access that he has to us, the relationship that we enjoy in our community — he says he gets to brag,” Mueller says.

He says not all communities have that kind of relationship. Unity in the Community and Sioux City Police have partnered for several years to promote understanding between minorities and local officers, and that paid off during the recent protests surrounding the death of Floyd. Mueller says they got to the point where they were talking with the organizers and they had a lot of positive give and take. “And thankfully we’ve got a community that is open to listening to and communicating with us. And it made the situation a lot better as the days of those protests went on,” according to Mueller.

The protests in Sioux City led to a renewed effort to equip Sioux City police officers with body cameras. The city council discussed the issue at their meeting this week.