COVID-19 Impact As School Gets Underway
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The school year has officially gotten underway for many students in the Mahaska County area, except for Fremont Elementary, who delayed their start until September 8th due to COVID-19.
At Twin Cedars, the district shifted to online learning and plan to return to face-to-face instruction on September 8th.
In the Oskaloosa School District, twenty students and three staff members are currently quarantining.
Masks are mandatory on Oskaloosa Schools property and events, and recently North Mahaska implemented a similar policy.
They reported this week at William Penn University that 1125 individuals had been tested, with 30 of those returning a positive indication.
In the latest reports, Mahaska County has had 213 positive cases of COVID-19.
On August 27th and 28th, there were sixty positive cases within the county, up from seven on August 1st. On August 30th, the number was decreasing, with fifty-five cases within the county.
Four percent of the county’s positive cases have been individuals aged 0-17, with those 18-40 making up the bulk of those, testing positive with thirty-seven percent.
Those aged 40-60 and those 61-80 each have twenty-three percent of the positive tests, and those aged 80 and over are thirteen percent of the positive tests.
Elderly individuals are still the most at-risk group, with those 80 and over accounting for forty-eight percent of the deaths related to COVID-19.
Those in the 61-80 age range accounted for forty-one percent of COVID-19 related deaths.
Individuals age 41-60 accounted for nine percent of the death, while those aged 18-40 two percent. Individuals 17 and under have zero percent of the deaths in Mahaska County.
Men are more likely to die from COVID-19 with fifty-three percent. Women make up forty-seven percent.
The last reported death from COVID-19 in Mahaska County was August 21st, with the previous death on June 28th, 2020.
State-wide, there have been 1112 deaths related to COVID-19.
Mahaska County is part of the RMCC Region 1. There are currently one-hundred and twenty-one individuals hospitalized, and thirteen were admitted in the past 24 hours—Thirty-three of those in intensive care.
You can keep up with the latest COVID-19 statistics by visiting https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/ or locally from the Mahaska County Emergency Management Agency https://mahaskaready.com/covid-19-info.
