DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – The number of people tested for the new coronavirus in Iowa showed a sharp drop when state facilities stopped for Christmas, according to new data on Saturday.
As of 10:30 am, the Iowa Department of Public Health said 299 additional people had tested positive for COVID-19 since the same time on Friday, putting the state total at 274,313. 277,670 people are considered recovered from the disease.
TestIowa, the state-run testing program, closed on Thursday, December 24, and remained closed on Friday for the Christmas holiday. This was probably a factor that contributed to the reduced number of people who tested positive and fewer tests in general. A similar drop in testing, compared to other days, was seen around the Thanksgiving holiday in late November.
No additional people who died of COVID-19 have been added to the state total in the past 24 hours. The total number of people who died of the disease during the pandemic is 3,744.
The total number of people in Iowa hospitals due to COVID-19 was 558, a net reduction of 42 people. This is the lowest total number of people hospitalized due to the virus since October 25. 114 of these people are in intensive care units, a net reduction of seven. 63 of these patients require the use of a ventilator, a net reduction of six. 76 people were recently admitted to Iowa hospitals due to the disease, less than in the previous three days of the report.
Another 1,247 people had test results reported by public and private laboratories in the past 24 hours, significantly less than in recent days. The positivity rate for this batch of tests was 24.0%, the second consecutive day of a rate below 30% using this calculation. This is the first time that there have been two consecutive days with a positive rate of less than 30% since the end of October. The positivity rate calculated using this method may differ from the number on the state coronavirus panel, due to the fact that it uses the number of people tested, not the total number of tests, including people who have been tested repeatedly.
A total of 1,339,501 people in Iowa have been tested since the pandemic began.
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