Washington County has had another COVID-19 death bringing the total to 12. It is the first COVID-19 death in the county in over two months. Iowa’s COVID-19 hospitalization figure reached a new high again on Friday with 606 patients. Of those 606 hospitalized COVID-19 patients across the state, 152 are in intensive care and 55 people are on ventilators. As of Friday, Washington County has had 708 confirmed cases of the virus, 12 deaths, and 503 have recovered.

This week Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski encouraged people to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, “We do continue to see increased hospitalizations across the state. So I would just remind everybody, especially as the weather gets colder, you know it’s harder to social distance and do more things outside with the changing weather, so just to continue to be cautious – wearing your mask, wash your hands, all of those good things.”

Washington County’s 14-day positivity rate on Friday was 9.9. Area counties’ 14-day positivity rates were Henry County at 16.2%, Jefferson County at 12.5%, Keokuk County at 10.9%, Iowa County at 10.8%, Louisa County at 10.3%, and Johnson County at 7.4%.