(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
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Iowa’s COVID hospitalizations rise with increased infections [1]
['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- July']
Date: 2022-07-20
The number of people in Iowa infected by the coronavirus who require inpatient treatment at a hospital continues to rise — as of Wednesday there were 256 — after a recent spike in cases, according to state and federal health data.
New infections reported in the state during the past week were slightly higher than the week prior, which was a 30% jump from the week before that. On Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 5,301 new cases, or more than 750 per day.
Those new cases represent only a 2% increase from the previous week, but the number of hospitalizations went up 12%. The new infections and hospitalizations are relative highs this year since the pandemic peak in January.
They follow the rise of a new omicron subvariant — dubbed BA.5 — which now accounts for about three-quarters of infections in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Infections are likely severely undercounted, in part because of the availability of free, at-home tests that are not catalogued by the state. The state’s most-populous county asks its residents to report those at-home results to help it monitor the spread of the virus.
“A majority of the community is finding out they are positive for COVID-19 through at-home tests,” said Helen Eddy, director of the Polk County Health Department.
The department said it will use that data to advise residents about precautions they should take to avoid infection and infecting people who are at risk of serious symptoms. Johnson County also tracks the in-home tests.
A CDC report last week identified areas of western, northern and eastern Iowa that have the highest threats of infection. It ranks counties from low to high based on their rates of infection and hospitalization. More than a third are now listed as medium or high.
The number of counties with a high risk multiplied significantly, and included: Des Moines, Franklin, Kossuth, Jackson, Johnson, Linn, Louisa, Shelby, Washington and Winnebago.
The counties with a medium risk also increased to include: Adams, Allamakee, Audubon, Benton, Boone, Calhoun, Cass, Cedar, Cerro Gordo, Clinton, Cherokee, Clarke, Dubuque, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Harrison, Henry, Howard, Iowa, Jones, Lyon, Mills, Montgomery, Pottawattamie, Poweshiek, Sac, Story, Wright and Worth.
The number of new reported deaths among those who were infected by the virus in Iowa was 41 this week, for a total of 9,759. Because of the way the state reports those deaths, it’s unclear when they happened.
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