The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 290 additional COVID-19 cases today (Friday) bringing the state to 18,792 positive tests overall.
Twenty more deaths were reported, for a total of 520 Iowans confirmed to have died of the coronavirus.
376 Iowans are currently hospitalized with the virus. State health officials say more than 10,500 have recovered from the illness.
Those numbers reflect the 24-hour period ending today at 10 a.m.
At her daily coronavirus news conference tioday, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds talked avout thow the state would use the 1.5 billion dollars allocated to Iowa through the CARES Program. Reynolds says the state will allocate half of that money as they look forward to any future COVID-19 related costs. Here’s how the state will spend the rest of the money.
Of the 700 million I have allocated . . . .
The rest of the funds will go to help Iowa farmers, ethanol producers and small communiutes in Iowa.
Tyson Foods has announced it will temporarily close a northwestern Iowa pork plant a day after state health officials revealed that 555 of its more than 2,500 employees had tested positive for COVID-19.
The company made the announcement late yesterday that it would shutter its Storm Lake plant over the next two days and stay closed while undergoing a deep cleaning next week.
Buena Vista County, where Storm Lake is located, had 701 positive cases as of Thursday, or 3,527 cases per 100,000 people — the largest concentration of cases in Iowa. Meat processing plants across the country have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, and Tyson has temporarily closed several plants in Iowa, Nebraska and other states.
Health officials are confirming another coronavirus outbreak in an Iowa meatpacking plant on the same day that the number of residents who have died from the virus topped 500. Of more than 2,500 employees tested at the Tyson pork processing plant in Storm Lake, 555 have tested positive. Department of Public Health Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter said Thursday that businesses in Iowa are not required to report outbreaks, and state law only requires disclosure of a business name when it’s necessary to protect the public.
