During the COVID-19 pandemic’s spread to Iowa, Dallas County is notable for confirming the first case of community spread. Now statistics appear to show that County residents have curbed the viral spread more effectively than many others around the state.

Dallas reached the 30 case mark within a few weeks of the coronavirus outbreak in Iowa, but since then the positive test mark in the County has plateaued. Dallas County Health Department Public Information Officer Ann Cochran also points out that nearly all of those in the County to catch the virus have already recovered. When searching for an answer to why the virus has stalled in Dallas but expanded elsewhere in Iowa, Cochran says it appears that local residents have carefully followed social distancing guidelines.

She encourages people to keep it up, emphasizing we’re not out of the woods yet. “It’s not easy to have such a drastic change in your lifestyle; to stay home, to work from home, to have your children at home all the time. But evidently it’s working, because we’re having fewer situations with it rampantly spreading among the community. And it’s very important for us to realize that Iowa has not had its peak yet, there’s still a lot of the virus germs out there. So we need to continue with the physical distancing for a few more weeks.”

For the latest updates from the Dallas County Health Department, click the link below to visit their data dashboard. To hear more from Cochran about COVID-19, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and online.

https://dallas-county-coronavirus-response-geodallas.hub.arcgis.com