Nearly 78,000 Iowans have been tested for COVID-19 and 12,373 of those have been positive, and 271 Iowans have died from the virus. Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski shares what symptoms people should be cognizant of, “The CDC expanded the list of symptoms that people should keep in mind. So of course, the ones that we’ve talked about a lot: fever of 100.4 or higher, a cough, a sore throat, shortness of breath. But also, muscle pains, headache, runny nose, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, loss of sense of taste and smell, a lot of those symptoms can also be indicative of a potential COVID-19 (patient). But also, of course you can be asymptomatic and also be positive. So, even if you’ve been around others who may have been diagnosed or who have been symptomatic, trying to either seek treatment or seek testing, or at least maintaining that social distancing. Because if you have been around somebody who has these symptoms you want to isolate.” If you show symptoms, call your medical provider to set up a time to be seen and tested.

She encourages people to continue practices that have been recommended throughout this spring to help prevent the spread of the virus, “I think people need to remember that COVID-19 is still circulating in our community and we are continuing to see our case counts increase. So, even though we are seeing some things open, I would just encourage people to continue to maintain as much social distancing as possible. Only go out if necessary. Continue to wash your hands. If you are going out, I would wear a face covering, a cloth face covering even if you are maintaining that social distance, just as an additional precaution for the employees and for the other people who might be shopping or running errands. Cleaning high-traffic surface areas. So, a lot of the same things we’ve talked about, I would continue to be implementing those best practices.”

She recommends cloth face coverings be washed each day they are used and have a couple to rotate from day to day. As of Monday, Washington County had 162 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths attributed to the virus.