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Brief
A coronavirus test kit. (Photo courtesy of Centers for Disease Control)
For only the fifth time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily number of new infections in Iowa has topped 700.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 33,756 confirmed cases of the virus on Friday, an increase of 744 from Thursday’s total of 33,012.
The Reuters news service, which uses a slightly different method of defining days and calculating infections, reported a similar increase for Iowa, showing 731 new cases on Thursday. The Reuters data indicates the state has topped 700 newly reported infections on only four previous days: May 1, May 2, June 4 and July 2.
While the daily number of confirmed cases can vary greatly from one day to the next, the trend in Iowa points to an increasing number of infections. Last week’s 2,864 newly confirmed cases in Iowa represents an increase of 13.4% over the previous week, and the weekly total of infections has reached its highest level in Iowa since May 3.
The Iowa Department of Public Health website shows that since the end of June the number of new infections reported each day in Polk County has been climbing steadily. On July 7, the seven-day average was 84.71 new cases per day, an increase of 42 percent from the previous week’s daily average of 59.57 new cases.
IDPH reported a new high Thursday in the number of COVID-19 tests completed: 7,792. That brings the total number of tests in Iowa to 362,997, or one in nine Iowans.
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