With recent changes to the State Coronavirus Dashboard and some new additions, understanding the statistics can be tricky. 

Dallas County Health Department Public Information Officer Ann Cochran says there have been a few changes to how the statistics are kept for COVID-19 including not counting positive individuals but instead counting positive tests. 

“The change was made so that Iowa would be better aligned to data from other states. Iowa had been tracking how many individual persons were tested but surrounding states to Iowa tracked by number of tests. So if the same Iowan is now tested three times they will be counted three times instead of just one as they were previously.”

While there have been changes to how the state tracks positive tests, there also has been the addition of tracking vaccines in the state and separated into counties. Cochran says it can be difficult to know what you are looking at. 

“It’s a little bit tricky. The lingo isn’t something that we use on a day to day basis all the time.”

Cochran tells Raccoon Valley Radio the different maps will show how many people who are residents of a certain county have been vaccinated and other maps show things such as how vaccines have been administered in the county regardless of where they live.