Floyd County testing for COVID-19 at near state average; no positive results yet

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County continues to be one of a shrinking number of Iowa counties without a positive COVID-19 test result, according to state and local health officials.

That’s despite the number of tests in the county being done at roughly the same rate as the rest of the state.

As of Monday morning, there had been 76 COVID-19 tests conducted on Floyd County residents, all returning as negative, said Gail Arjes, administrator of Floyd County Public Health.

With 15,761 residents in Floyd County according to the latest census information, that’s a testing rate of 0.48% of the population.

Across Iowa, there had been 17,715 total COVID-19 tests performed as of Monday morning. With an Iowa population of 3.155 million, that’s a testing rate of 0.56%.

Both state and local officials say there are almost assuredly more cases of COVID-19 than have been found with testing, possibly including in the 17 counties that as of Monday had not had a positive test so far.

On Monday, Iowa reported 1,710 positive tests for infections tied to the pandemic, with a majority of the 43 deaths so far coming from outbreaks at nursing homes.

The death toll at Heritage Specialty Care in Cedar Rapids has risen to 17 and a second outbreak at a nursing home in Marion has killed two residents, Linn County announced.