DES MOINES, Iowa — The latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report obtained by ABC News says Iowa has the third highest rate for new coronavirus cases in the country.
Summary
The report, dated Sept. 6, also says Iowa has the sixth highest rate for test positivity in the United States. This means the state is in the red zone for both categories.
From Aug. 24 to Aug. 30, 189 new cases per 100,000 population were confirmed. The national average is 88 new cases per 100,000 people.
Polk, Johnson and Story counties had the highest number of new cases over the last three weeks, according to the report. Those counties represent 38.9% of all new cases in the state.
The report says 62% of Iowa counties have moderate or high levels of community transmission with 32% of those having high levels of community transmission. Virus activity is happening in both rural and urban areas.
The report also dug in on long-term care facility data. From Aug. 24 to Aug. 30, 6% of nursing homes had at least one positive case among residents, 17% of nursing homes had at least one positive case among staff, and 3% of nursing homes had at least one resident die from the virus.
From Aug. 24 to Sept. 4, on average, 49 COVID-19 positive patients and 47 suspected COVID-19 positive patents were reported as newly admitted each day to hospitals in the state, according to the report.
On average, more than 95% of hospitals reported either new positive coronavirus patients or suspected new positive patients each day.
White House recommendations
The task force recommends the state to require face masks in metro areas and COVID-19 cases among students and teachers in K-12 schools.
Universities are recommended to increase testing capacity by expanding public-private partnerships as well as increasing the budge and capacity of public health labs. Utilizing all university veterinary and research platforms for surveillance and testing of students is also recommended.
The task force also recommends establishing weekly surveillance in critical populations, like nursing homes and schools, to monitor the degree of community spread.
Bars are recommended to be closed statewide, however restaurants in red zones should operate at 25% capacity. Restaurants in yellow zones can operate at 50% capacity.
The White House also recommends Tribal Nations to continue social distancing enforcement and mask mandates in areas of increased transmission.
READ: White House Coronavirus Task Force report on Iowa
COVID Tracking Project trends for Iowa
The COVID Tracking Project also tracks the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
ABC News analyzed coronavirus trends across all 50 states and Puerto Rico and found there were increases in cases in 25 states, increases in the daily rate of positivity in 22 states, increases in hospitalizations in 14 states, and increases in daily deaths in 11 states.
Death trends are dropping across the country, however, new case and rate of positivity trends are on the rise. Current hospitalizations are still declining. Since August 8, current hospitalizations have dropped by 35.3%.
It will be several weeks before we see the true effect of Labor Day across the country, however, it is important to note that data from this week may be skewed because of lags in reporting or backlogs as a result of the holiday.
Fortunately, Iowa is seeing more decreasing trends rather than increasing trends. The only increasing trend in Iowa is among hospitalizations.
Iowa reported a flat rate of cases, meaning the number of new cases reported has been steady. Iowa's positivity rate is on the decline, according to ABC analysts.
Iowa is also seeing a decrease in daily deaths.
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