(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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COVID infections, hospitalizations continue to decline

['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2022-03-02 00:00:00


The state’s COVID-19 infection rate has diminished to a level unseen since August 2021, when confirmed cases began to rise after a summer of low coronavirus activity.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported about 2,500 new positive tests on Wednesday for the past week. However, it also reported about 6,800 new cases.

An IDPH spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to explain that discrepancy. The number of new cases reported by the department is typically less than the number of new positive tests, but there have been instances when the department adjusted case numbers for previous weeks and months.

In February, when the state shut down its website that was dedicated to COVID-19 reporting, state officials discovered about 6,700 previously unreported positive tests due to an accounting glitch. IDPH updates its coronavirus statistics once each week.

The number of newly reported positive tests for the entire past week is less than half the number of new confirmed cases each day at the height of the pandemic in January, when the omicron variant became the dominant circulating strain and was infecting more than 5,000 people each day.

The state reported 86 new deaths in the past week, down from 137 the previous week.

The number of infected people receiving inpatient treatment at Iowa hospitals is also continuing to decline. There were 202 people hospitalized for COVID-19 on Wednesday, down about 41% from a week ago. Of those, 38 were receiving intensive care.

Thursday marks the two-year anniversary of the virus’ likely emergence in Iowa, when three people from Johnson County returned to the state from a cruise in Egypt. Tests confirmed their coronavirus infections five days later.

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