There’s been a sharp increase in the number of Iowans who have tested positive for coronavirus.  Friday morning (5/1) it was announced that another 739 people have tested positive for a pandemic total of 7884. 25 of those new positives are from Jasper County (one child, 12 adults, 8 middle aged adults, 3 older adults and one elderly adult), seven from Wapello County (3 adults and 4 middle aged adults), four in Mahaska County (one adult and 3 middle aged adults), two in Marion County (both adults) and one each in Keokuk (one middle aged adult) and Poweshiek Counties (one middle aged adult).  Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds explains why there has been such an increase.

“Because of the large number of tests we’ve conducted recently, we do anticipate the overall numbers that will be reported this weekend, they may be higher than usual, as we’ve seen in today’s numbers.  So please keep in mind that a high volume of tests conducted this week were among essential workers in communities or facilities where virus activity is high.”

Reynolds adds 2899 additional Iowans have recovered from COVID-19 and 2186 people have tested negative for coronavirus and over 37-thousand people in the state have tested negative through the pandemic.

Remember, you can hear Governor Reynolds’ daily news conference every weekday morning at 11 on the No Coast Network.

*The Iowa Department of Public Health considers a child to be someone under the age of 17, an adult to be 18 to 40, a middle aged adult 41 to 60, an older adult aged 61 to 80 and an elderly adult to be 81 or older.