As of 9 a.m. today (Friday) the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Carroll County reached 620. Sara Schulte, a nurse with Carroll County Public Health says they are, unfortunately, unable to determine if we are close to hitting a peak yet. Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
Schulte wants to clear up a relatively common misconception about the population comprising our numbers. She says college students’ locations and not their permanent addresses are used for reporting.
Another misconception prevalent during the onset of the pandemic was that children were not likely to get the virus or to be carriers.
The timing of testing is also playing a part in reporting of larger clusters of positive cases to the county totals on specific days.
In our region, the most common testing method is still by nasal swab. Carroll County Public Health is monitoring mitigation efforts through contact tracing and case investigations. Schulte says they are still strongly encouraging people to wear masks. Even though it does not provide a zero percent chance of getting COVID, it dramatically decreases the odds. Shulte presented the Carroll County positive case numbers by zip code. At the time of this interview Carroll had 376 of the cases, Glidden 35, Coon Rapids and Manning each had 53, Templeton 18, Dedham eight, Arcadia 21 and Breda 33. These fit with expectations that numbers will be higher in the more populated areas, Schulte says. She adds they are not seeing pressure on the healthcare system at this time. The department stresses that quarantining and self-isolating when infected or exposed to the virus are still critical. A link to the full interview with Schulte can be found below. The most up-to-date numbers on a statewide and county-by-county basis can be found at www.coronavirus.iowa.gov.
Click here for full interview with Carroll County Public Health nurse, Sara Schulte