COVID numbers rising again in Iowa, nationally

DES MOINES — More than three years removed from the worst of the pandemic, COVID-19 numbers have jumped in recent weeks in Iowa and across the country.

Multiple COVID-19 data points have increased in recent weeks in Iowa.

More than 20 percent of COVID-19 tests in Iowa were positive in the week that ended Aug. 3. That is the highest figure in more than a year, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

The percent of Iowa inpatient and emergency room visits for COVID is increasing, but remain low at roughly 2 percent.

COVID-19-related deaths also remain low in Iowa, with two reported in the week that ended Aug. 3, according to HHS data.

Federal data also shows numbers increasing in Iowa and nationally.

Another measure — wastewater viral activity — is “high” in Iowa, one of 11 states with that ranking. Virus activity in another 33 states is classified as “very high,” according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Nationally, the wastewater viral activity level for COVID-19 is considered “very high,” according to the CDC.

Communities can track the presence of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater samples, providing an early warning of COVID-19’s spread, according to the CDC.

CDC data shows that in eight out of nine wastewater sites tracking in Iowa — including one in Linn County and two in Johnson — at least 80 percent of wastewater samples show detectable COVID-19 virus in the last 15 days.

And Iowa is among 21 states whose current COVID-19 epidemic status is classified by the CDC as “growing” or “likely growing.”

According to CDC data, Iowa has a COVID-19 transmission rate of greater than 1 which, according to the CDC, means infections are growing because, on average, each infected person is causing more than one new infection.

The CDC recommends everyone aged 5 years and older get one dose of an updated 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine — from either Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Novavax — to protect against serious illness.

Neither the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services nor the Linn County Public Health responded to messages from The Gazette.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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