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New COVID-19 cases are up sharply in Iowa, as are hospitalizations

['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- August']

2021-08-11 New COVID-19 cases are up sharply in Iowa, as are hospitalizations

Iowa’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is 16 times higher than it was four weeks ago, showing the largest rate of increase since the peak of the pandemic last November.

Although the actual number of new infections reported on Aug. 10 is, at 1,559, relatively small compared to the 5,489 new infections reported in Iowa on Nov. 13, 2020, the current rate of increase is the most significant of the past nine months, according to the New York Times’ COVID-19 tracker.

As of Monday, there were 371 Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19, the highest number since Feb. 3. The number of currently hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Iowa is more than three times the 102 hospitalizations reported on June 21, the Times reported.

In mid-July, the seven-day average of newly reported infections bottomed out at 39. Today, the seven-day average of new cases is 635, the highest level since mid-February, and is trending sharply upward,

Over the past 14 days, the daily average of newly reported infections in Iowa has increased 163%. Hospitalizations are up 57% over that same period of time, while deaths due to COVID-19 have declined 17%, the Times reported.

The Iowa Department of Public Health has not updated its coronavirus website since Aug. 4, but the Times data shows that hardest-hit area of the state, by far, is Lee County in the extreme southeast corner of the state. Lee County is now averaging 26 new cases per day. That’s a 281% increase, over the past two weeks, in the county’s daily average of new cases. The vaccination rate among adults in Lee County is 51%.

The Times’ data shows that in addition to Lee County, the other Iowa counties with a high per-capita rate of infection are: Ida, Des Moines, Webster, Adams and Marion, each of which is averaging at least 34 new cases each day per 100,000 residents.

Half of Iowans are fully vaccinated

Iowa’s vaccination rate of 50% remains almost identical to the current national average. While half of all Iowans are fully vaccinated, 62% of all Iowans age 18 and older are fully vaccinated.

In the past week, roughly 5,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered each day in Iowa, which represents a 34% increase over the previous week, according to the Washington Post. At the current rate, Iowa will reach President Biden’s vaccination goal of 70% of all adults in mid-October.

The Iowa counties with the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated adults are in border areas alongside states with lower vaccination rates than Iowa:

Davis County, on the Missouri border, at 41%.

Decatur County, on the Missouri border, at 42%.

Van Buren County, on the Missouri border, at 43%.

Sioux County and neighboring Lyon County, on the Nebraska border, at 46%.

According to data compiled by the Washington Post, the positivity rate among Iowans tested for the virus is now 11.7%, and the number of tests increased almost 16% from last week.

Nationally, Texas and Florida continue to see some of the nation’s biggest increases in infections.

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