Iowa on Friday reported that more than three-quarters of the coronavirus tests performed in the past 24 hours had come back positive.
The positivity rate jumped to a record 79.43 percent — with 2,579 new COVID-19 cases confirmed out of 3,247 tests. It’s the first time the number of positive cases has outnumbered the negative results.
State public health officials earlier this week said they were going to add the results of antigen tests to statewide numbers but that the impact on positivity rates would be minimal. Antigen tests are growing in popularity because they return results quickly.
Pat Garrett, spokesman for Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office, said the abrupt increase is a result of antigen tests that were previously marked as inconclusive now being marked as positive or negative. That means in some areas, more new cases were reported than new tests.
“About when the press release (about antigen testing Friday) came out, we then started making them positive or negative,” Garrett said. “The test was already counted.” The release was sent just after 9:30 a.m.
The spike in new cases reported Friday breaks the one-day record of 1,477 cases reported Thursday.
Johnson County, home to the University of Iowa in Iowa City, reported 247 new cases Friday, its second highest 24-hour total behind Thursday’s 338. Friday’s positivity rate was 55.5 percent, an increase from Thursday’s 47.6 percent.
Johnson County’s seven-day rolling average for positive cases is at a record 146.
Story County, home of Iowa State University in Ames, on Friday reported a record 239 cases, with 65.48 percent of tests coming back positive.
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Polk County reported 664 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in Iowa’s most popu-lous county to 12,885.
Linn County reported 43 new cases and one death, bringing the county’s death toll to 93. The positivity rate for tests in Linn County was 38.05 percent.
Another 11 coronavirus-related deaths were reported Friday, including one in Linn County. Taylor County in southwest Iowa reported its first death, becoming the 84th county in the state to report a virus fatality. Other counties reporting deaths were Black Hawk, Dallas, Muscatine, Plymouth, Wapello, Winnebago and Woodbury.
Statewide, 62,075 COVID-19 cases have been reported since the virus arrived in Iowa in mid-March. The statewide rolling seven-day average of new coronavirus cases is 1,052, marking the first time that average has been above 1,000.
The Gazette gathers coronavirus data from the Iowa Department of Health at 11 a.m. daily.
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Gazette digital coach Katie Brumbeloe contributed to this report.
