Henry County COVID spike due to reporting issues

Anyone following the number of COVID-19 case numbers in Henry County may have noticed a large spike in cases late last week.

The Iowa Department of Health reported 130 new cases in Henry County on Thursday, the second highest increase for any of the state's 99 counties that day, behind Polk County's 299-case increase.

There was also a marked increase on Thursday, with 94 new cases being reported. Those two days followed several days of new cases in the 20s.

Henry County Public Health Director Shelley Van Dorin said Friday that the sudden spike in numbers has nothing to do with any new outbreaks in the county.

'There was a glitch with some antigen tests that weren't being reported,” Van Dorin said. 'It was just some difficulty with antigen testing reporting.”

The absence of the antigen testing data resulted in Henry County's overall total cases being underreported.

Van Dorin said that the county's overall total cases, now that the new data has been reported, is accurate.

That total is now 2,298 cases, according to the Iowa Department of Health's COVID-19 dashboard.