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Iowa virus cases jump more than 15% to 2,902 on Sunday

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April 19th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State health officials say the number of cases of coronavirus in Iowa increased more than 15% on Sunday to 2,902. The Iowa Department of Public Health said Sunday that 389 additional cases of COVID-19 and one additional death related to the virus had been confirmed. The person who died was an adult in the 61-to 80 age bracket, from Muscatine County. The state has now reported 75 deaths linked to the virus.

Officials say 261 or 67% of today’s 389 additional positive cases can be attributed to surveillance testing of meat processing facilities. That includes over 500 completed surveillance tests of Tyson employees and over 500 completed surveillance tests of National Beef employees, for a total of 84 positive and 177 positive respectively.

The IDPH says 198 patients are currently hospitalized, and 1,171 Iowans have recovered. There have been an additional 1,214 negative tests for a total of 21,648 negative tests to date, which includes testing reported by the State Hygienic Lab and other labs.

For most people, coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks. For some people, the virus can cause more severe illness and death. The state of Iowa has released an updated dashboard on coronavirus.iowa.gov that will be updated daily to include comprehensive tracking of COVID-19 in Iowa.

The new dashboard includes cases, deaths, and tests conducted in each county. The state is now providing demographic information that was not previously provided as well as Iowa’s epidemiological curve.