Statewide Iowa — State officials have announced confirmation of the first death of a child in Iowa caused by complications of COVID-19.
The child, who died in June, was under the age of five and “had significant underlying health conditions,” according to an Iowa Department of Public Health news release.
Coronavirus test results this weekend pushed the statewide positivity rate past 15%, meaning 15% of COVID test results in a 24-hour period were positive. Northwest Iowa’s Plymouth County has an even higher 14-day positivity rate of over 215 — the highest in the state. That has prompted the superintendent of the Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn and Remsen Union Districts to announce the start of school will be delayed due to “the substantial uncontrolled spread of COVID -19” in the area.
In south central Iowa, Twin Cedars Community School District in Bussey started the school last Wednesday, but announced this weekend there will be no school today or tomorrow after “multiple staff members” tested positive. A majority of elementary students in the district will have to quarantine for 14 days.
The governor has ordered schools to begin in-person and switch to online instruction only when 10 percent of students are absent and the 14-day rolling average of positive COVID test results in the district is at least 15 percent.
