(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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COVID infections still falling; state adds ‘backlogged’ cases

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

Date: 2022-03-09 00:00:00


The state’s COVID-19 infection rate is lower than it’s been since July — which preceded months of stubbornly elevated infections by the delta variant of the coronavirus and was capped by a dramatic surge in cases of omicron — according to state data published Wednesday.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said there were about 1,590 new positive tests for the past week, but it also reported about 1,750 new cases.

It’s the second consecutive week that there were more new reported cases than positive tests, which an IDPH spokesperson has attributed to “backlogged” data. The disparity is typically reversed, in part because an infected person can have multiple positive tests.

The difference was more pronounced last week when there were about 2,500 new positive tests and about 6,800 new cases.

“We recently processed positive tests (collection dates ranged from 11/30/21-1/16/22) from a backlogged reporting file,” Sarah Ekstrand, an IDPH spokesperson, told Iowa Capital Dispatch last week in an email.

The state has repeatedly insisted that its COVID-19 reporting has been accurate and transparent throughout the pandemic.

When the state decided to shut down its dedicated coronavirus website in February and further scale back its reporting, state officials discovered about 6,700 previously unreported positive tests that had been hidden by a glitch in how they counted cases.

Nevertheless, the omicron surge has receded. There were 154 people infected by the coronavirus receiving inpatient treatment at Iowa hospitals on Wednesday, down from 202 the week prior. Peak hospitalizations briefly breached 1,000 during the height of the omicron surge

Of those hospitalized on Wednesday, 25 were receiving intensive care, down from 38 the week before.

The state reported 91 new deaths among those infected on Wednesday, which was slightly higher than the previous week’s report.

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