Another COVID-19 death was reported in Washington County Tuesday bringing the total to eight. Statewide there have been 12,912 confirmed cases, an increase of over 500 on Tuesday. Governor Kim Reynolds announced that 319 of the new cases were Iowans who were earlier tested in Nebraska related to a meat packing plant but there was a delay in data getting to the state of Iowa.

In all, 5,618 Iowans have recovered, or about 43.5%. Eighteen new deaths were announced Tuesday bringing the total to 289 deaths in Iowa.

Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski says people should continue healthy practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19, “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.”

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Washington County now has 163 confirmed cases and 124 of those have recovered. Louisa County currently has 111 active cases of COVID-19, with 287 total cases so far and three deaths.

On Tuesday, Reynolds said she would delay any announcements regarding closures until her daily conference on Wednesday.