Only seven of Iowa’s 99 counties have a 14-day COVID-19 positivity rate below 15% as of Wednesday. State guidelines for schools state that if a district is in a county with 15-20% positivity on average over the past 14 days with 10% absenteeism among students then they can request up to 14 days of temporary remote learning. If a district is in a county with 20% positivity on average over the past 14 days with healthcare resource capacity concerns it is considered to be in substantial uncontrolled community transmission of COVID-19. If a district reaches that point, then they can request to go to temporary remote learning for up to 14 days. Most of Iowa’s counties have 14-day rates above 20%, 64 of them as of Wednesday.

Washington County’s 14-day positivity rate on Wednesday was 16.1%.

In addition to positivity rates and case figures climbing, Iowa has seen more people hospitalized reaching a new high on Wednesday with 1,190. Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski says people need to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, “Just a good reminder for everybody that right now, especially as we think about making our holiday plans, it’s really important that we keep our gatherings small, wear our masks, wash our hands, social distance, because as it gets colder and people start gathering indoors that’s where we sit.”

On Wednesday, Washington County added 44 confirmed cases of the virus for a total of 960. Washington County has had 12 deaths and 571 people have recovered so far, for a recovery rate of 59.5%. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Washington County had eight residents hospitalized with the virus as of Monday.