Governor Kim Reynolds is encouraging Iowans to do what’s best for their personal health, while also recognizing the state has to re-open businesses as the coronavirus pandemic enters its eleventh week.

“We can and must strike a balance between managing virus activity for the long term and getting our economy up and running again.  It’s not a matter of prioritizing one over the other, it’s about prioritizing both.  The long term consequences of keeping businesses closed are far-reaching and could have an even greater impact on Iowans than the virus itself.”

As of Monday (5/18), four more Iowans have died from COVID-19, with one of those being a Jasper County resident.  The death toll from the pandemic is now 355.  And another 304 have tested positive for coronavirus, for a pandemic total of 14,955.  Five new cases have been reported in Mahaska County, 17 new cases in Wapello County, three in Monroe County, two in Jasper County and one in Marion County.