IOWA - Iowa continues to experience a falling rate of COVID-19.
As of Monday morning, it's in the lower third among states for new cases according to the New York Times. The number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations are all on a sharp downward trend.
The current 14-day positivity rate of 4.3 percent reflects a new change in the state's method of reporting numbers.
Iowa is now reporting the total number of tests rather than individuals tested, which is lowering the positivity rate.
Total positive cases are divided into total tests taken. The former method only counted each Iowan once, regardless of if they tested multiple times.
The state is also no longer reporting 14-day positivity rates by county. Those figures were used by schools to determine if they could apply for a waiver to provide 100% online learning. A page that previously reported this data has been taken offline.
As of Friday, one county - Adair County - had a noticeably high rate of more than 25 percent while no other county had a rate of 15 percent, and all but nine counties were below 10 percent.
Nationally, COVID-19 cases have fallen more than 40 percent over the last two weeks and more than 70 percent since the January peak. Fewer people are testing positive each day than at any point since late October.