(Johnston)– The Iowa Department of Public Health is reporting today (Thurs.) an additional 176 positive cases of COVID-19 bringing the total number of cases so far to 3,942. Six additional deaths were also reported today (Thurs.) bringing the total so far to 96.
The agency also reported 1,492 Iowans have recovered from the virus for a recovery rate of 38 percent.
There have been a total of 25,348 negative cases reported so far in Iowa.
During her press conference today (Thurs.) Governor Kim Reynolds said she expects to have an announcement Friday regarding whether or not she will allow an emergency declaration that closed dine-in restaurants and a number of other businesses to expire one week from today, April 30th…
“We’re working on that right now and looking at different ways that we can approach that based on data and metrics that we have. And remember I said, you know, you can look at it from a state perspective, we can look at it from a regional perspective, we can also look at it from a county perspective, community and zip code. So we really are able to drill down on the data and just see what makes sense where we feel comfortable in doing that, and then continue to watch that and then maybe we can release it just a little bit more. But Iowans are ready to get back to work. We know we have to do it in a responsible manner. It is physical, it is mental and it is financial wellbeing and all of that is a part of the picture and so we need, we work. Think about our labor participation rate that we have here in Iowa. We have always have led the country when it comes to, you know, work force in our state, and so that’s our very nature. But we know we have to do it in a safe and responsible manner so we’re balancing all of that as we move forward and I’m confident that we can do that.”
The Governor also today (Thurs.) said she wasn’t sure yet whether any federal relief money will be able to go to local governments to help them with revenue losses. She said they’re still looking into that.
