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Iowa Health Officials Have Confirmed Eight Cases Of COVID-19

Trust "Tru" Katsande
/
Unsplash
Iowa public health officials have identified five additional cases of COVID-19.

Iowa health officials have identified five additional "presumptive positive" cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. This brings the total cases to eight in Iowa.

Four of the new cases are in Johnson County are in adults between the ages of 60 and 81 years. They were on the same Egyptian cruise as the three cases that were previously identified.

This brings the total number of cases in Johnson County to seven.

The other newly identified case is of a middle-aged adult between 41 and 60 who lives in Pottawattamie County and had recently traveled to California.  

Pottawattamie County Planning Director Mark Wyant said a woman who worked at a Panera Bread in the city was tested for coronavirus at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha Saturday.

“They worked at the local Panera Bread. Panera Bread did take the steps of notifying their employees when the possible [positive result] came across," Wynat said at a news conference Monday. "They took the step that I complimented them on, they shut down their facility and they are going through the cleaning process now to disinfect it.”  

So far all of the cases have not required hospitalization, and the individuals are recovering at home in isolation, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

On Monday, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a Proclamation of Disaster Emergency, which allows state agencies to "utilize resources including personnel, equipment and facilities to perform activities necessary to prevent, contain and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 virus," according to a press release from the governor's office.

Gov. Reynolds will address the state's COVID-19 cases at her weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

The Iowa Department of Public Health is providing updates on its website.

A public hotline has been established to address COVID-19 concerns. That number is 211.

Natalie Krebs is IPR's Health Reporter