Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health, Saturday (today), report Cass County has one new positive case of COVID-19, for a total of 12. Nine people have also recovered from the virus in the County. The only other changes in numbers for the surrounding counties, was in Guthrie County where there were two more cases (for a total of 50; 30 have recovered), and in Shelby County, which had an additional case (for a total of 35; 30 have recovered).

In western/southwest Iowa, the latest RMCC data show 12 persons were hospitalized over the past 24 hours, 6 were in an ICU, 5 were admitted to a hospital, and 3 people were on ventilators.

Statewide, to date:

• 148, 886 Iowans had been tested for the virus
• 19,019 tested positive for COVID-19
• 129,440 have tested negative
• 10,896 have recovered
• 527 have died
• 368 people were being treated for the virus in a hospital
• 118 patients were in an ICU
• 29 had been admitted over the past 24-hours
• 69 patients were on ventilators.
• The number of LTC facility outbreaks is up one, to 39; 1,553 LTC patients/staff have tested positive; 702 have recovered, and 247 have died.

Officials with Pottawattamie County Public Health, late Friday, reported there are 12 new cases of COVID-19 among residents of Council Bluffs. PCPH said also, “We are sad to report our eight COVID-19 related death for Pottawattamie County.” The patient was a woman from Council Bluffs who was 81 years of age or older, and had pre-existing medical conditions.

Six of the 12 new, positive COVID-19 cases are persons age 18-to 40, two are age 41-to 60, and one is a person 81 years of age or older. Those persons were tested between May 23rd and 27th. PCPH says so far, 2,915 Pottawattamie County residents have been tested for the virus. Of those, 272 tested positive.

An additional six people have recovered, for a total of 152. Seven patients are hospitalized, and 99 are self-isolating. A total of 79 cases are the result of community spread. For additional COVID-19 information, including case demographics filtered by county, go to the IDPH COVID-19 dashboard at coronavirus.iowa.gov.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred people who gathered near the downtown police headquarters after a peaceful rally earlier in the evening. Live video by KCCI-TV showed police trying to talk with protesters at a rally several days after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody. Floyd’s death has led to nights of protests and unrest in Minneapolis and St. Paul that have spread to other cities around the country. Organizers of a rally outside Des Moines police headquarters had asked people to leave after the hour-long event but some remained nearby, occasionally shouting slogans at police who were wearing helmets and holding shields. Police fired tear gas about 9 p.m., leading many protesters to run into nearby streets.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Meatpacking plants that had to briefly close due to coronavirus outbreaks have been back up and running for weeks, but production backlogs are forcing farmers to euthanize thousands of hogs that can’t be processed, drawing complaints from animal welfare advocates. The preferred methods of euthanizing hogs include gunshots or electrocution, but when thousands must be destroyed en masse, producers shut off the ventilation, causing heat to build up in barns and kill them. Animal welfare groups say that is inhumane and should be stopped. An estimated 2.5 million hogs are backed up on farms nationwide.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State budget experts say Gov. Kim Reynolds and the legislature will have about $360 million less to use for next year’s budget than earlier expected. The Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference, a group of three people responsible for estimating state revenue, set lower expectations for this year and next after debating the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The group lowered the state revenue estimate for the current year, which ends June 30, by $150 million from a March estimate. For next year, officials will have about $7.88 billion to work with. That’s about $360 million less than had been estimated in March.

EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say they believe they’ve found the remains of a missing Arizona woman and her stepfather in Iowa inside the stepfather’s car after it was found buried in an undeveloped lot. The Waterloo Courier reports that authorities were waiting for confirmation from a medical examiner that the remains found on a dead-end road in Evansdale, Iowa, are those of 28-year-old Elissa Landry and 45-year-old David Batten, of Chino Valley, Arizona. Landry and Batten were reported missing April 19. No arrests have been made, but a 24-year-old suspect who was formerly from Waterloo, Iowa, has been detained.

Emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene of a rollover accident Friday night, northeast of Atlantic. According to scanner traffic, the single-vehicle accident happened at around 8:23-p.m. at 640th and Fayette. Initial reports had one person trapped, but about 10-minutes later, all occupants where out of the vehicle, a Saturn Vue, that had rolled over and landed on its top. Law enforcement said there did not appear to be any serious injuries.

Atlantic Fire and Rescue, Medivac Ambulance and Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies were on the scene.  Additional details are currently not available.

(Radio Iowa) — For the past 12 weeks, Governor Kim Reynolds has been holding news conferences on weekdays to discuss the pandemic. She’s also been working out of the emergency operations center at the Iowa National Guard’s armory at Camp Dodge. “Iowans are gradually getting back to life and business as usual and it’s time for me and my team to the same thing,” Reynolds says. Starting Monday, Reynolds will return to her office suite in the state capitol. She’ll hold news conferences on Tuesdays and Thursdays rather than every weekday.

“Like you, I’m eager to get things back to normal,” Reynolds says, “but I’m committed to taking a measured approach, practicing personal responsibility and doing my part to protect not only myself, my family but our fellow Iowans.”

The governor’s daily news conferences have been broadcast live on dozens of Iowa radio and T-V stations and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook, giving thousands of Iowans a change to hear COVID-19 announcements directly from the governor.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa lawmakers will have to pare down the state spending plans they were drafting before the pandemic hit. The state Revenue Estimating Conference met this (Friday) afternoon and lowered its estimate of state tax collections. The governor’s budget director and a division chief from the Legislative Services Agency were more optimistic about an economic recovery than Clear Lake C-P-A David Underwood. He’s the third member of the panel.

“I don’t think we have reached a bottom,” Underwood says. “We certainly could climb out and fall back rather quickly.” Underwood argued to set a far lower estimate of state tax collections. “I think most of the businesses that we’re hoping are going to reopen — a lot of those won’t,” Underwood said. But, in the end, the group agreed to slice 360 MILLION off its earlier prediction of next year’s state tax collections.

Holly Lyons of the Legislative Services Agency says the real economic consequences of the pandemic are still unknown and that’s why she resisted a deeper reduction. “I’m a little concerned about the message that we send,” Lyons said. “There’s enough fear and trepidation now out there.” Dave Roederer, the governor’s budget director, says he believes the economic setbacks of the past 12 weeks are temporary, not permanent.

“While bruised and somewhat battered, our fundamentals are still strong in this state,” Roederer says. “…Is everything rosy? Of course not.” But Roederer says he believes most if not all the Iowans who’ve lost their jobs will be able to go back to work.” The three-member panel predicts overall state tax revenue in the next fiscal year will be just eight-tenths of a percent below this year’s total. The group shaved 150 million dollars off their estimate of the state’s tax take in THIS fisal year, but it will not require emergency state budget cuts in the next month.

The CURRENT state budget has an unspent cushion of nearly 400 MILLION dollars to dip into to cover that.

EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say they believe they’ve found the remains of a missing Arizona woman and her stepfather in Iowa inside the stepfather’s car after it was found buried in an undeveloped lot. The Waterloo Courier reports that authorities were waiting for confirmation from a medical examiner that the remains found on a dead-end road in Evansdale, Iowa, are those of 28-year-old Elissa Landry and 45-year-old David Batten, of Chino Valley, Arizona.

Landry and Batten were reported missing April 19. No arrests have been made, but a 24-year-old suspect who was formerly from Waterloo, Iowa, has been detained.

Fort Madison – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports two correctional officers were assaulted Friday morning by two inmates, at the Iowa State Penitentiary.  The two correctional officers were escorting an inmate back to his cell when at around 8-am.,  the inmate began to assault the staff members with closed-fist strikes. As the two officers were attempting to defend themselves, another inmate that was in the area joined in the assault using closed-fist strikes and kicks towards the officers that were attempting to subdue the original aggressive inmate.

A correctional counselor that was in the area attempted to help restrain one of the inmates, and responding officers soon arrived to take further control of the situation. While it was not used in the assault, a sharpened object was recovered from one of the inmates after the incident.

All staff and inmates that were involved in the assault were assessed by prison medical staff, and no major injuries were reported. The two correctional officers were taken by department vehicle to local medical providers to have their injures assessed, and have since been released to recover with no major injuries.

The incident remains under investigation.

Atlantic, IA —COVID-19 testing continues across the state of Iowa at healthcare facilities, Test Iowa, and some other locations. As testing becomes more widely available, there are some common questions and answers that officials at Cass County Health System (CCHS) would like to address for our community.

I don’t have any symptoms, but I want to be tested. What are my options?

Individuals who have no symptoms, but would like to be tested should take the online assessment for Test Iowa at testiowa.com. Individuals with symptoms should call their healthcare provider’s office before going to any healthcare facility.

Is CCHS testing people for COVID-19? Can I get tested at CCHS?

CCHS continues to test patients for COVID-19. As of May 29, we have tested more than 380 individuals. At CCHS, we will continue to test people while also monitoring our supplies, such as swabs, test kits, and PPE. Some of our tests are sent to the state hygienic lab, some are sent to Mayo Clinic, and a limited number are done on site for specific patients.

Can I have all of my employees tested for COVID-19 at CCHS?

At this time, CCHS does not have the capacity to test large groups of asymptomatic people. Additionally, mass testing of asymptomatic people would have to be done frequently to be effective. Because of national PPE shortages and difficulties securing the necessary supplies for testing, CCHS has to be judicious in our use of tests to ensure that we have what we need for the most critically ill patients or in case of any local outbreaks. As testing supplies become more readily available, we may revisit our testing criteria.

If I get a negative test result, then that means I am in the clear, right?

Not necessarily. Tests are a snapshot in time. You could be exposed to COVID-19 in the morning, tested in the afternoon, get a negative result, and then develop symptoms several days later at which point you would test positively.

Why are the test numbers from CCHS different than what is reported on coronavirus.iowa.gov?

CCHS testing numbers can be different from what is reported on coronavirus.iowa.gov for several reasons. For example, someone who lives in Elk Horn might be tested at CCHS. If they have a positive result, then their positive result would show on the state map for Shelby County, not Cass, and it would also show as a positive number on CCHS results. Additionally, as public testing increases through private businesses or Test Iowa sites, Cass County residents may be tested out of the county. Those tests would not be included on CCHS testing results, but would be compiled into the results for Cass County.

What about blood tests? Will an antibody test show whether or not I have already had COVID-19?

There are numerous limitations of these tests, and there are many concerns about their accuracy. There may be a very limited number of situations where serology (antibody) testing may be recommended. We encourage you to speak with your primary care provider about whether or not this testing is appropriate.