Pottawattamie County Public Health officials, Wednesday evening, reported seven new COVID-19 cases, all of whom are residents of Council Bluffs. Three of the individuals are 18-to 40-years old, two are 41-to 60, and two are 61-to-80. They were tested between May 22nd and June 2nd.

According to the IDHP dashboard, 3,438 Pottawattamie County residents have been tested for COVID-19 so far. A total of 316 have tested positive. An additional 11 people have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 180. Five persons are hospitalized, and 115 are self-isolating. A total of 92 Pott. County COVID-19 cases are the result of community spread.

PCPH reported Wednesday, a total of 316 COVID-19 cases, while the State’s dashboard shows 275. Officials say part of the reason for the discrepancy is timing and the fluidity of the situation. Another reason the inconsistency is epi-linking (epidemiologically linked) individuals. A person can be epi-linked if their physician or PCPH assumes they have the virus based on close contact with a confirmed case and the demonstration of COVID-19 symptoms. Epi-linked cases are not confirmed by laboratory testing.

PCPH includes epi-linked persons in their monitoring process and offers them assistance and guidance as they recover. Contact tracing is also conducted for epi-linked persons. The State of Iowa does not account for epi-linked cases in their official numbers. PCPH began epi-linking cases on May 16th, and has worked with a total of 30 such cases thus far.