(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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Iowa COVID hospitalizations jump 29% in one week
['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- June']
Date: 2022-06-01 00:00:00
There were 180 people infected by the coronavirus receiving inpatient treatment at Iowa hospitals on Wednesday, a sizeable increase over the past week despite fewer new confirmed cases reported by state health officials.
That number was a 29% increase from a week ago, when 139 were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those patients who were under intensive care also increased from 13 to 21 in the past week.
But the number of new infections reported by the Iowa Department of Public Health on Wednesday for the past week was slightly fewer than the previous week. There were 3,854 new cases — or about 551 per day — a 3% decrease.
State health officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment about the disparity between newly reported cases and new hospitalizations.
It’s unclear how many infections detected by rapid, at-home tests have gone uncounted. County health officials generally do not collect that data.
The Biden administration announced its third round of free, at-home test distributions last month. Each household is eligible to request eight more tests from the Health and Human Services department.
On Wednesday, the state also reported 15 new deaths among people who were infected by the virus, for a total of 9,603.
The threat of infection is most significant in eastern parts of Iowa, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC uses infection and hospitalization rates to rank each county’s threat at low, medium or high. When it is high, the CDC recommends people where masks indoors in public places.
Johnson and Jones counties rated high in the most recent CDC report, which is set to be updated Thursday. Counties that had a medium threat level included Appanoose, Benton, Cedar, Davis, Des Moines, Henry, Howard, Iowa, Linn, Louisa, Washington and Winneshiek counties.
The Polk County Health Department said last week that local hospitals were operating at limited capacity due, in part, to rising COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages.
“The demand for patient beds is greater than the number of beds available,” the department said May 25 in a press release.
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