DES MOINES (AP) — State health officials say two more people died with COVID-19, so the state has had 533 deaths as part of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Iowa Department of Public Health said Sunday that 19,488 people had tested positive for COVID-19, an increase of 245 since Saturday.
More than half of the state’s confirmed cases were concentrated in seven counties: Polk, Woodbury, Black Hawk, Linn, Marshall, Dallas and Buena Vista.
Of the 19,488 people who have tested positive, 11,072 people have recovered.
For some infected people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the coronavirus can cause severe illness and death. For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks.
In light of new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
CDC continues to study the spread and effects of the coronavirus across the United States. Studies show a significant portion of individuals with COVID-19 lack symptoms (“asymptomatic”) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (“pre-symptomatic”) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms. This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity—for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing—even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms.