As Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the closure of bars in six counties Thursday, she was asked about why other counties seeing spikes had not been considered. For the past week, Carroll County has been one of the top 10 in the state with a two-week positivity rate above 15 percent. Between Thursday afternoon and 11 a.m. Friday morning, positive case numbers in the county rose from 325 to 347, increasing to a 17.2 percent rate.
The data used to call for the closures included the reporting of nearly three-quarters of new cases over the past seven days in Story County, home to Iowa State University, were in the 19 to 24 age range. A similar statistical rise in Johnson County, where the University of Iowa is located, showed that 69 percent of new cases in the same timeframe were in that age range. Reynolds says these rates and numbers need to be put into context.
The other counties ordered to close bars at 5 p.m. on Thursday were Black Hawk, Dallas, Linn and Polk. As of 11 a.m. Friday morning, Carroll County has 192 of the 347 cases recovered and remains at two deaths. In the rest of the region: Crawford County is at a 15.8 percent positivity rate with 816 positives, 710 recovered and three deaths; Calhoun County is at 11.2 percent with 118 cases, 86 recovered and two deaths; Audubon is now at 7.4 percent with 37 positive tests, 27 recovered and one death; Guthrie is at 7.2 percent with 168 positives, 125 recovered and five deaths; Sac is at 5.9 percent with 106 positives cases, 81 of which are classified as recovered; and Greene County is holding the lowest rate at 5.8 percent with 54 positive results, 38 of which are recovered. For the state, there are 62,075 positive cases with 45,907 recovered and 1,091 deaths. For real-time statistics on a statewide and county-by-county basis, log on to coronavirus.iowa.gov.
