Lang
8/25/20
Iowa City has the third-fastest rising rate of COVID-19 in the country.
That’s according to The New York Times. Iowa Department of Public Health data shows Johnson County has had three straight days with COVID-19 positivity rates over 30%. That means over 30% of tests administered in the county came back positive.
As of Tuesday morning, Johnson County had a total of 2,644 confirmed COVID-19 cases, an increase of 78 since the previous morning. That represents almost 33% of the 238 tests conducted during that time period.
The high rates have led Dan Diekema, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa, to tweet: “We have a COVID-19 outbreak in Iowa City.”
The Centers for Disease Control defines an “outbreak” as a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease above what is expected.
Officials had expressed concern after throngs of University of Iowa students without masks were seen crowded shoulder-to-shoulder outside and within several Iowa City bars only hours before university classes started on Monday. Online records show Iowa City Police received multiple calls about bars over capacity and not enforcing the city’s mandatory mask regulation for those out in public.
(NOTE: The rate is constantly being updated by The New York Times, and is subject to change.)