DES MOINES, Iowa - COVID-19 cases have spiked in Iowa in recent days, with more than 1,200 reported on Friday.
Ten counties now have a positivity rate of more than 15 percent as of Saturday morning, after dropping to just four by last Monday.
Fifteen percent is the threshold at which the state allows school districts to seek a waiver to transition to online only classes.
Some of the heaviest concentration of new cases is in Sioux and Lyon counties, which border South Dakota in northwest Iowa. Sioux County has a 14-day positivity rate of nearly 30 percent.
New cases have trended sharply down in Johnson and Story counties, which were reported nationally as virus hotspots last month when students started returning to campus at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
Governor Kim Reynolds extended the closures of bars in Johnson and Story counties to September 27th from an earlier emergency order.
The most recent White House Coronavirus Task Force report showed Iowa has the 3rd highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the country.
The report was released last Sunday, with another White House report scheduled for this Sunday.
The New York Times COVID-19 analysis of states classifies Iowa as a state "where new cases are higher and staying high."