Iowa’s weekly average of new COVID-19 cases drops again

More than 6,300 people joined the ranks of fully vaccinated Iowans on Saturday as the weekly average of new COVID-19 cases in the state declined for the 17th day in a row.

According to state public health data, 1,303,065 Iowans now are fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease. That represents over 48 percent of the state’s 12 and older population. No vaccine yet has been approved for children under 12.

As of Saturday in Linn County, 105,037 people — roughly 46 percent of the county’s total population — were fully vaccinated. In Johnson County, that reached 79,212 people, or about 52 percent of the county’s total population.

Overall, the total number of doses administered to Iowa residents since the rollout began Dec. 14, 2020, was 2,659,341 as of Saturday.

New cases

Iowa added 85 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Saturday. That brought the seven-day average of new daily cases down to 117, representing a decline for 17 consecutive days. The total number of positive cases the state has seen since the pandemic began here more than a year ago is 371,317.

Johnson County added five of the cases, for a total so far of 14,566. No new cases were added for Linn County, which data showed has had a total of 21,042.

No new cases were reported in the 24-hour period for adults in the education occupation category. However, 21 new cases — nearly a quarter of all new cases in the period — were reported in the 17-and-under age group.

Deaths

Officials on Saturday confirmed two additional deaths as a result of COVID-19, bringing the total number of Iowans who have died because of the disease to 6,055.

Both deaths occurred in May. One was of a person between 18 and 40 and the other was a person over 80, according to the state data.

Hospitalizations

The number of people being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals remained steady Saturday at 111.

However, the number of patients in intensive care because of the disease dropped by one to 24 as of Saturday morning — the lowest number since the state began tracking that measure in March 2020. The number of patients on ventilators dropped by two over the 24-hour period, bringing the total down to 10 people.

Stephen Colbert of The Gazette contributed to this report.