Floyd County hits high mark for new COVID-19 cases

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County set an unwelcome record this week, with the largest two-week total of new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began last spring.

On Tuesday there were 20 new cases reported in Floyd County, according to the state’s COVID-19 database at coronavirus.iowa.gov. Combined with other big-number days in the last 14 days, the two-week rolling total of new cases was 105, or an average of 7½ new cases per day.

The previous high two-week rolling total was 93 on Sept. 23. Iowa uses a two-week rolling total of cases to track trends and see where new cases are increasing or decreasing.

As of Thursday there have been 528 cases of COVID-19 reported in the county. It took just 20 days to increase from 400 cases to 500.

The number of active cases in the county on a single day was as high as 88 this week, reported on Wednesday. Active cases is the total number of cases that have been reported so far (528), minus the number listed as recovered (429), minus the number of deaths (11).

On Thursday, Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will institute a media campaign to encourage people to take action to reduce the state’s surging number of coronavirus infections, but will not impose any mandates or enforce new rules.

Reynolds also said the success of Republican candidates in the general election was proof that most Iowans support her decision to not require masks and quickly end most restrictions on businesses.

“They agree with how we’ve handled COVID-19,” she said.

Reynolds said the media campaign would begin next week and would include newspaper, television and radio advertising.

She spoke on a day when there were 4,562 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours and 20 more deaths.

The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Iowa has risen over the past two weeks from 26% on Oct. 21 to over 39% on Nov. 4, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Iowa’s rate is second in the nation behind South Dakota.

State data shows 839 people were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals, a new high that is expected to increase in the coming days given the surge in new infections. Hospital officials said they are preparing plans for a big increase in patients and pleaded for people to change behavior or risk overwhelming the health care system.

In the past four days, 85 deaths were reported in Iowa with coronavirus. In the past 30 days, 379 deaths were reported.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.