(Radio Iowa) — Top state officials say a new data point seems to indicate the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 may be working in Iowa. Governor Kim Reynolds today (Friday) reported two more Iowans have died of the disease and 118 new cases of the virus were confirmed by testing in the past 24 hours. Iowa Department of Public Health director Sarah Reisetter says also they’re tracking other number — about when patients begin to show symptoms.

“We have said all along that we anticipated last week was going to be a difficult week in terms of cases. Again, at the beginning of this week we said we fully expected to see our case numbers start to climb,” Reisetter says. “But, when we look at our onset of symptoms data, that appears to be flattening.” Governor Reynolds says that data showing when Iowans who’ve gotten a positive COVID-19 test first began showing symptoms of the virus will be released to the public next week.

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s website shows 1388 positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Iowa and the deaths of 31 Iowans are linked to the virus.

Officials with Cass County Public Health, in Atlantic, report today (Friday), the number of positive COVID-19 test results in Iowa continues to climb and currently stands at 1,388. As of today (Friday), there have been no confirmed cases reported in Cass County.  Cass County Public Health Director Beth Olsen says “We are urging residents not to be complacent about following public health recommendations, just because a confirmed case has not been reported here yet. It’s important to remember there is widespread community transmission across the state. This means the virus is spreading from person-to-person, and often without known contact with a positive case.”

A resident’s chance of exposure to the virus is high, regardless of there being no confirmed case in Cass County. This is why all residents are advised to stay home as much as possible, and when they must leave for essential errands like groceries or to get medication, they maintain a 6-foot distance from other individuals and avoid groups of people. This is because the risk of exposure to the virus is NOT limited to exposure to a known case; you could just as easily be exposed to an undiagnosed individual at the grocery store.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa regulators ordered health care providers Friday to take steps to address a shortage of personal protective equipment for workers treating coronavirus patients. Iowa Department of Public Health deputy director Sarah Reisetter said the department was issuing an emergency order with directives on what providers should do if they cannot get enough face masks, shields and gowns to provide standard care. If they face shortages, providers are directed to use face masks that have expired, not change them for each patient encounter, use washable gowns and shorten hospital stays for coronavirus patients.

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A blood bank operating in Missouri and three other Midwestern states is seeking plasma donations from people who have recovered from the coronavirus in hopes of helping those still battling the disease. A spokesman for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center said Friday that the blood bank is seeking people who tested positive and have not had symptoms for at least 28 days.

The blood bank operates in parts of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. The therapy was used during the 1918 flu pandemic, and has been used in recent years to treat victims of Ebola, SARS and the H1N1 virus.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and 24-year prison sentence of an Iowa City man who fired shots into a crowded pedestrian mall in Iowa City in 2017, killing one man and injuring two others. Lamar Wilson claimed a stand-your-ground law the Iowa Legislature passed earlier in 2017 provided him immunity from prosecution. The Supreme Court found that while several states including Florida and Kansas afford immunity from prosecution in their similar laws, Iowa does not.

The court says Wilson lacked justification to shoot at a group of men from Cedar Rapids during a heated argument.