Health and Fitness : Benton County Nursing Homes dealing with COVID infections

In Benton County, both the Vinton Lutheran Home and the Keystone Nursing Care center saw a spike in COVID cases. The Vinton Lutheran home had only six cases last week but the state of Iowa reported 19 cases this week. The Keystone Nursing Care Center now has eight infections.

This week the Iowa Department of Public Health announced that it will no longer collect data from Iowa nursing homes concerning COVID-19 infection. The agency said that it will collect information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to analyze the nursing home facilities with positive cases. IDPH also said it won't be publishing weekly updates that identify sites of current or active cases.

This week shows109 nursing homes in Iowa having outbreaks, while there were 86 last week.