Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has announced that she and the Iowa Department of Public Health are working to allow family members to visit their relatives in long term care facilities.

“I want Iowans to know that our team, along with the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa’s Long Term Care Association, have been reviewing the re-opening guidance from the CDC and have developed guidance to safely resume visitation in Iowa’s long-term care facilities,” Reynolds said in Thursday’s press conference.

41 long term care facilities have seen a COVID-19 outbreak. 1,551 individuals in long term care facilities have tested positive for COVID-19 with 290 deaths and 766 patients recovering.

Only nine positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported in long term care facilities in the last seven days. 

State Medical Doctor and Epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Pedati said on Thursday that there would be further guidance on “how to start safely easing some of the control measures that have been put in place to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and protect staff and families” later in the day.

In Thursday’s press conference, Reynolds praised the states “increased testing” from the beginning of the pandemic in March, till now.

“Despite the fact testing were in short supply nationwide, we were able to increase our testing and processing capabilities by leveraging federal and state resources, Iowa’s regional health care systems and our public/private partnerships,” Reynolds said.

The Iowa Department of Public Health has reported 696 new positive cases of COVID-19 and 14 new COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Of the total number of individuals tested yesterday, 5.4 percent of them tested positive.

580 Iowans have died from COVID-19. 12,233 Iowans have recovered from COVID-19.

174,129 COVID-19 tests have been taken with 20,706 of those results coming back positive (11.8 percent).