By Beacon Staff
In what has become a familiar scene, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds stood at a podium to give her daily televised COVID-19 status report to Iowans. Today, as she did yesterday, she had the grim duty of announcing more deaths related to the novel coronavirus.
At Wednesday's press conference, Reynolds announced four more COVID-19-related deaths and 96 new confirmed cases in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Public Health has not released the ages and locations of the four people who died. Nor have they yet released information regarding those who most-recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Wednesday's announcement brings the state's total number of deaths to 53 with 1,995 confirmed positive cases. In Des Moines County, there are seven confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Reynolds said there are 407 negative tests for a total of 17,847 total negative tests in the state. There currently are 3,048 tests available, and 908 Iowans have recovered for a 46 percent recovery rate, she added.
State health officials confirmed the seventh outbreak at a long-term care facility in Iowa. Wilton Retirement Community in Wilton reported an outbreak this week, the IDPH said. A total of 171 Iowans are hospitalized with COVID-19, with 20 admitted in the past 24 hours. Of those hospitalized, 78 are listed in intensive care and 43 are on ventilators.
There are 7,930 hospital beds available in Iowa, with 533 ICU beds available and 718 ventilators available, according to state health officials.