Governor Kim Reynolds has announced the Iowa’s schools will not be returning to the classroom to finish the schoolyear due to the COVID-19 crisis. Schools will be required to continue offering online programs. As of Friday, Iowa had 2,332 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 64 deaths. One of the deaths announced Friday was in Washington County, bringing the county’s death toll to five. Washington County has had 109 confirmed cases of the illness and 68 of those have recovered.

Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Marissa Reisen is continuing to collect donations of personal protective equipment to distribute to area nursing facilities and the county hospital. She says the biggest need at this time is gowns, ““Because they’re reusable that extends the life of them significantly, and I know at some places what they have for cloth gowns they’re washing a couple of times a day to make sure that they are able to care for their patients properly.” People can sew those at home, a pattern is available here.

Overall, the state of Iowa has had 1,007 people recover from this novel coronavirus. Also, there have been 21,792 negative tests. Iowans are reminded to continue to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the virus.