The highest 24-hour death toll due to COVID-19 in Iowa happened Thursday. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 11 a.m. Thursday 21 people died from the virus. As of Thursday, there have been 15,956 confirmed cases of the virus in Iowa with 8,528 recovered cases, or a recovery rate of 53.4%.

Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski says the virus is still circulating locally. She encourages people to take measures to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, “I would just encourage people to continue to maintain as much social distancing as possible. Only go out if necessary. Continue to wash your hands. If you are going out, I would wear a face covering, a cloth face covering even if you are maintaining that social distance, just as an additional precaution for the employees and for the other people who might be shopping or running errands. Cleaning high-traffic surface areas. So, a lot of the same things we’ve talked about, I would continue to be implementing those best practices.”

Washington County did not add any new cases Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and has a total 173 cases with 135 people recovered, and eight deaths. As of mid-day Thursday, Louisa County has had 324 confirmed cases and six deaths, Johnson County has had 584 cases and seven deaths, Henry County has had 49 cases and one death, Iowa County has had 32 cases, and both Keokuk and Jefferson County have each had 13 cases.