COVID-19 case counts have continued to increase in recent days in the KCII-listening area. As of Monday morning, Washington County had 256 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 219 people recovered, or a recovery rate of nearly 86%. Johnson County’s confirmed cases climbed to 1,480.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends people wear a cloth face covering in public settings when you’re around people who don’t live in your household, and especially when social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. Dr. Ryan Flannery at Washington County Hospital and Clinics encourages the public to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and wear masks, “I’m a firm believer that right now the best way to prevent the spread of this disease and to protect yourself and your family members is to follow the guidelines that are outlined by our scientists and medical experts through the CDC and other medical organizations, that clearly state that wearing a mask in a public place, especially if you’re going to be in a public place indoors with not very well ventilated space and around lots of other people, masks are the best way to protect yourself and to protect others from the viral spread of this illness.”

Flannery adds that limiting exposure to other people will help slow the spread, “Social distancing is also an important piece to prevent the virus from spreading from person to person. Because everybody needs to understand, the virus doesn’t live without somebody the virus lives inside of, so a person has to be present to get the virus for the virus to keep living and keep spreading. If we can stop this virus by social distancing, wearing masks, and really limiting exposure you’re having to other people as much as possible, especially in big group gatherings, it will start to slow down the spread. And that is the one way we can get our hands around the disease and stop the spread until we have a better set of tools in place like vaccinations or even other treatment options at our disposal that will do a better job of trying to prevent further spread of this disease.”

As of Monday, Iowa had 35,462 cases of COVID-19 confirmed with 752 deaths. So far, 26,589 people have recovered in the state, a recovery rate of about 75%. Iowa had 177 hospitalized patients on Monday, with 30 of those admitted to the hospital in the previous 24 hours. Of those hospitalized, 54 were in intensive care units and 26 people were on ventilators.

County: cases – recovered – deaths
Washington: 256 – 219 – 9
Johnson: 1,480 – 860 – 8
Louisa: 367 – 343 – 13
Henry: 93 – 78 – 3
Iowa: 63 – 44 – 1
Jefferson: 63 – 49 – 0
Keokuk: 23 – 17 – 1