IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An employee at the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa, died Monday after battling the coronavirus during a six-week hospitalization that was chronicled and widely followed online.Jose Ayala, 44, died at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. His friend and co-worker Zach Medhaug says it was painful to watch his friend succumb to the virus.

Ayala had received treatment at three hospitals since April 12, and his ups and downs had gained a following on social media in the six weeks since then. Advocates say that Ayala is at least the fifth employee at the Tyson plant in Waterloo to die after contracting the coronavirus.

The Iowa Department of Public Health and Audubon County Public Health, Monday, identified an additional case of COVID-19 in the county. The individual is an older adult aged 61-80. This additional case brings Audubon County’s total to 12 positive confirmed cases of COVID-19, this number includes 10 that have recovered, and one death.

A common question that Audubon County Public Health receives is a request for more information on a COVID-19 positive individual. Please keep in mind that when a new positive case is announced the Iowa Department of Public Health is only allowing the age range of the individual to be released. Due to confidentiality and HIPPA regulations any additional information including the person’s race, ethnicity, gender, city or employer is considered confidential information and cannot be given out.

(update 12:57-p.m.) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa saw a surge of COVID-19 deaths and coronavirus cases over a 36-hour period, with 10 additional deaths and 436 new cases confirmed. The state’s online dashboard by midday Monday showed 459 total deaths since the state’s first COVID-19 death two months ago. The state had reported 449 by midday Saturday. Figures also showed 17,555 in total have tested positive for the virus, with 342 of those cases confirmed Sunday and another 94 confirmed by midday Monday. The dashboard showed 9,355 had recovered.

The numbers were released as the mayors of seven Iowa cities penned an editorial appearing in the Des Moines Register calling on federal officials to approve federal aid for cities.

Around the area, positive test results and (number of recovered) include: Cass County 11 (1); Adair County: 8 (3); Adams County: 5 (1); Audubon County: 11 (9); Guthrie County: 43 (29); Montgomery County: 6 (5); Shelby County: 31 (24) and Pottawattamie County: 213 (117).

In RMCC Region 4 (Southwest/western Iowa), seven people are hospitalized for COVID-19, three are in an ICU, and no one was admitted to a hospital.

DES MOINES, Iowa (The Des Moines Register) — Police in Des Moines have charged a woman with animal torture after they say she tried to kill her cat. The Des Moines Register reports that police learned of the attack after being called to an apartment around 2 a.m. Sunday for a report of an animal bite. Police say 21-year-old Rosemary Kay Buelow told them the cat had bitten her while she was showering and that she stabbed it in self defense. But police say after questioning, Buelow said she had stabbed the cat with a kitchen knife several times, then tried to drown it because she didn’t want to care for it anymore.

(Radio Iowa) — Some cities in Iowa have adding thousands of residents in the last ten years and some have grown by 100 percent and are seeing all kinds of growth in schools and businesses. But, Gary Krob, coordinator of the State Data Center at the State Library of Iowa says the state’s smallest cities have just more than one dozen residents. “Beaconsfield and Leroy both have a population of 15,” Krob says. He says the small population doesn’t mean the cities have to shut down. “As long as a city can function with a government and operate the way that’s needed –they can continue to operate as a city. It really depends on the municipality if they want to,” Krob says.

Census data shows 213 cities have gained population, 712 have lost population, and 18 have had no change. “We have had a couple of cities discontinue since 2010– but again that’s based on the decision of the municipality,” Krob says. The numbers released last week are estimates of growth since the census ten years ago. Krob says we’ll get more concrete numbers from the new count that is underway – -and he says that’s why it is important for everyone to take part. “Whatever that 2020 count is — that is the county for you community for the next 10 years. and all the funding that is coming in from the federal government and the state government is going to be based on that population,” Krob says. “So, we have one shot at this and we want to make sure that get it as accurate as possible and we want to make sure that every house is counted.”

Only 43 of Iowa’s 943 incorporated cities have a population of more than 10-thousand people — but accounted for more than half of Iowa’s total population.

(Radio Iowa) – After weeks and weeks of excessive hand washing and sanitizing in an effort to stave off COVID-19, many Iowans are finding their fingers and palms dry and cracking. Dr. Jennifer Abrahams, a dermatologist, says while it’s especially important to wash our hands during this pandemic, it’s also important to take proper care of those hands. “The best time to lock in the moisture in our hands is to apply something moisturizing directly after washing them, while they’re still at the damp stage,” Dr. Abrahams says. “It helps your skin absorb it a little better so that moisture stays locked in.” If you’re cleaning with chemicals around the house, use gloves to protect your hands and while it may sound counter-intuitive, she says getting them wet will dry out your hands even more quickly.

Many Iowans will turn to hand lotion as a salve for our cracking hands, but the expert says that likely shouldn’t be your first line of defense. “Ointments and creams, like Vaseline, petroleum jelly or even some of the moisturizing creams they have on the market, are better about penetrating through the layers of the skin, especially the thick layers that we have on our hands,” Abrahams says. “That would be the ideal, rather than a lotion that you pump from a bottle which is not as moisturizing for our hands.” When cracks appear on our hands, they can bleed and be very painful. That means they’re extremely dry and your hands may need help beyond ointments and creams.

“A little trick that we use in the dermatology world is filling in that space with a little liquid bandage or even crazy glue,” Abrahams says. “It can fill in those cracks and crevices so it’s not painful and spreading every time you work with your hands, and as your body heals, it’ll push that on its way out.”  She suggests buying products that are hypo-allergenic — without the potentially-irritating chemicals — and fragrance-free as those additives can also cause irritation. As for soaps, Abrahams says to look for non-soap cleansers instead which won’t dry out your hands as much as soap. Abrahams is a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Dermatology and a dermatologist at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha.