Photo from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A 15th death due to COVID-19 in Marion County was confirmed to the State of Iowa Coronavirus database Thursday. All of those fatalities have come since the beginning of September, following the first major surge of cases locally. Another 30 new positive cases of COVID-19 were reported Thursday in Marion County. The latest data from the State of Iowa shows 10 patients locally are hospitalized with the virus. Two long-term care outbreaks continue at Accura Healthcare in Knoxville and The Cottages in Pella.

The PCM School Board is holding a special meeting today at 3:30 p.m. to consider moving to a hybrid learning model that would mix in-person and virtual learning. As of Thursday, there were 70 students and staff absent from the district for a COVID-19 related reason, or 5.3% of the total district population.

After peaking on Tuesday, absenteeism is improving in the Pella Community School District. There are 13 students missing class for a positive COVID-19 test, but the overall rate of students missing class has dropped to 2.4%, and after reaching 7% on Tuesday, Pella Middle School is down to 4.8% as of Thursday. The staff absentee rate in the Pella School District is at 1.9%, and the high school is below four percent after reaching 5.7% Wednesday. Superintendent Greg Ebeling says district administration is closely watching numbers and communicating with Pella Regional Health Center to determine if they need to switch to hybrid or virtual learning.

Central College released its latest update this week, with 13 new positive cases reported in the first full week of November, and 70 total students confirmed with COVID-19 since the start of the semester. President Mark Putnam said in a recent update that as of early November, no students had been hospitalized with COVID-19. Central plans to continue moving forward with the remainder of the semester, which is scheduled to end on December 17th. The 2021 spring semester is scheduled to start on January 18th.