IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is defending her decision to reopen businesses despite a surge of coronavirus deaths, saying that a continued lockdown would come at a “social cost.”Restaurants, fitness centers, salons, and barber shops reopened statewide for the first time in two months. Some local officials said that Reynolds was reopening the state too soon, particularly in areas that still have high numbers of cases. They urged their citizens to exercise caution in determining whether to visit businesses and to wear facial coverings in public.

Reynolds announced that 18 more Iowans have died of the coronavirus, including 16 residents of long-term care facilities. Sixty-five people have died over the last four days, bringing the state’s total to 336.