DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa continues its upward movement above 20,000 COVID-19 cases, as 20,706 are reported by the state public health department as of Thursday at 10 a.m. There are also a total of 578 deaths.
The new numbers represent 694 additional cases and 14 more deaths.
There have been 12,167 recoveries from the virus for a recovery rate of 58 percent, up from 57 percent Wednesday.
The state is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 41 long term care centers, down from 42 Wednesday. Deaths of patients from those centers total 289, accounting for 41 percent of the state's deaths.
The state does not report outbreaks at meatpacking plants, which are another hot spot for the virus. It does record the number of infected residents per 100,000 population in each county.
Buena Vista County in northwest Iowa has the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 - 4,892 - a number now far above any other county in the state. There are nearly 600 positive cases at a Tyson meatpacking plant in Buena Vista County.
The state has conducted 20,285 Serology tests to find anti-bodies in people who have contracted and recovered for COVID-19. There have been 1,901 positive Serology tests, accounting for 9 percent of those tests.
Overall, COVID-19 case counts have flattened since May 6th, and have slowly tapered off.
The numbers for the state only represent COVID-19 figures compiled by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Unreported cases and deaths could make the actual figures different