In a 24 hour period from 10 a.m. on Wednesday to 10 a.m. on Thursday, Iowa saw 420 new positive tests for COVID-19 and 19 more COVID-19 deaths. 

Iowa now a total of 15,954 positive tests and 403 deaths from coronavirus.  

115,031 Iowans have tested for coronavirus with 13.9 percent of test coming back as positive. 8,505 Iowans have recovered from coronavirus. 

In Story County, there have been 86 positive cases with 61 recovered cases and one death.

During Thursday’s press conference, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that testing for COVID-19 has been expanded so that any Iowan who wants to be tested for COVID-19 can be tested, starting on Thursday. 

“Previously, we expanded testing to the essential workforce,” Gov. Reynolds said. “Today, we will be opening the criteria so that anyone who thinks that they should be tested can be. So if you’re interested in being tested, please go to testiowa.com and take the assessment.”

In Wednesday’s press conference, Gov. Reynolds announced that were be more openings beginning on Friday.

Reynolds further expanded on Thursday on the rationale behind continuing to open up businesses in the state.  

“We are seeing positive results, We’re seeing the positivity rate go down…because we can look at the data in real-time and with the testing capacity that we have, we’re able to be a partner in that (re-opening businesses),” Gov. Reynolds said. “We never said that we were going to able to prevent people from getting COVID-19. That’s unrealistic and unattainable, but what we have to do is learn to live with it and to be able to manage it. We can contain, manage and monitor virus activity across the state.”