304 news. 073020
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds released guidance this morning saying that Iowa schools would have to see a coronavirus positivity rate of at least 15% in the county where they are located before they could request to transition a school building or district to fully online learning.
The guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa Department of Education includes four levels of community transmission of COVID-19 within a school, requiring escalating response measures as the of transmission increases.
“We’ve said minimal 0-5, minimal to moderate 6-14 percent positivity rate, we feel that that’s adequate for in-school learning. Once we get above that and we have 10 percent absenteeism between the staff and the students, then we need to take a look at doing something different.”
Ninety-three of Iowa's 99 counties currently fall under a 10% positivity rate, Reynolds said today. Today Iowa has added 419 cases of COVID 19 for a total of 43, 623 cases and 83 deaths. Woodbury County has 3, 555 cases and 47 deaths.
More counties in Iowa are now considered to be in a severe drought.
Data released today (Thursday) from the U.S. Drought Monitor has portions of 16 counties in western and west central Iowa in that category, up from 11 last week.
