107 new cases of COVID-19 in Iowa

For the first time in what seems like a long time, Washington County had no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Washington County has had 126 confirmed cases since the pandemic began and at one time the county had the fourth-highest amount of cases in Iowa. As of Wednesday, Washington County has the tenth-highest amount of cases in the state behind Linn (469), Polk (438), Johnson (396), Black Hawk (379), Louisa (249), Muscatine (240), Marshall (239), Tama (226), and Scott (183) Counties.

Altogether, Iowa saw 107 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, a sizable decrease from Tuesday's 482 cases, which was Iowa's largest one-day jump so far.

There was one new confirmed case in Henry County on Wednesday, bringing the county total up to 31. Jefferson County saw no new cases on Wednesday, keeping its total at seven.

Across the state there were seven additional deaths due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state's total number of deaths up to 90. The deaths happened in Black Hawk, Linn, Muscatine, Tama and Woodbury Counties. At her news conference on Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds acknowledged that 51% of deaths in Iowa due to COVID-19 have been residents of long-term care facilities.

As of Wednesday, there are 11 confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities across the state. An outbreak is defined by three or more cases within a facility. The newest confirmed outbreak is taking place at St. Francis Manor in Poweshiek County where 23 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed. No long-term care facility has been hit as hard by the pandemic as Heritage Specialty Care in Cedar Rapids, which is located within Linn County. The Cedar Rapids long-term care facility had 110 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday.

Washington County's McCreedy Home currently has 26 of the county's 126 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Reynolds also said that since the launch of TestIowa on Tuesday, 80,00 Iowans filled out the assessment in the first 24 hours.

'Iowa's response to this opportunity has been incredible,” Reynolds said. 'It's really the first step to understanding the virus activity in Iowa.”

Reynolds announced a new public-private partnership to expand COVID-19 testing in Iowa during her news conference on Tuesday.

A new website, TestIowa.com, has been launched and users can take an online assessment to find out whether or not they should be tested for COVID-19 at this time.

The partnership is between the state of Iowa and companies Qualtrics, Domo, Co-Diagnostics Inc., NomiHealth, RPH Engineering and SafeLane Health.

The goal of TestIowa is to increase COVID-19 testing across the state Reynolds and TestIowa's website said. Drive-through testing sites will be set up around the state in the coming weeks, with the first one opening in Des Moines on Saturday Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the drive-through locations for TestIowa will be able to accommodate up to 3,000 more tests per day than the state is currently conducting.

The used tests will be processed at the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa and results should be available after 72 hours. Reynolds said on Tuesday that the tests will come at 'no cost to the individual.”