Coronavirus

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Wednesday signed off on extending COVID-19 boosters to Americans who got the Moderna or …

State’s death toll now at 6,848 since March 2020. Linn County reported 15 deaths, the most of any Iowa county, in the past week.

Interim leader of the Iowa Department of Public Health answers questions during AARP town hall.

Health care systems statewide will need to continue supporting the front line staff currently responding to the ongoing pandemic, and take innovative steps to improve the strength of the workforce, local health care leaders said during the 2021 Iowa Ideas Conference hosted by The Gazette.

CDC officials have warned the U.S. could face an “early and possibly severe flu season” this year, prompting worry among local public health officials for widespread cases of both influenza and COVID-19 in the coming months

“Stay tuned,” the Republican governor told a WHO-AM talk radio host in discussing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to issue an executive order earlier this week prohibiting any entity, including businesses, from imposing COVID-19 vaccination requirements on employees or customers.

Case counts and hospitalizations continue to drop, but the COVID-19 death toll in Iowa rose this week as state public health officials confirm more fatalities as a result of the virus in recent weeks.

Of the six state-run care facilities, the two with the highest vaccine-refusal rates among their staffs have consistently been the Glenwood Resource Center for the profoundly disabled and the Boys State Training School in Eldora.

An antiviral pill that people could take at home to reduce their symptoms and speed recovery could prove groundbreaking, easing the crushing caseload on U.S. hospitals and helping to curb outbreaks in poorer countries with weak health care systems.

“We’ve seen tragedy, we’ve seen crises, we’ve seen obstacles that others maybe haven’t. And again, it’s a testimonial to our grit,” said banker and City Council member Dan Bruns. “I don’t want to say the pandemic was easy. Because it wasn’t. But it was definitely easier than a tornado.”

Lawyers for Gov. Kim Reynolds filed notice of an appeal with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which could reverse the order or keep it in place.

The upper-level University of Northern Iowa students who last week experienced the “unnecessary stress and anxiety” of losing their specialized Plant Systematics professor as part of his discipline for mandating masks want their money back.

Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 — and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks.

Heeding mounting pressure from not just directly-affected students but the larger student body, University of Northern Iowa late Wednesday revised its discipline of an embattled professor who required masks — allowing him to continue teaching the class he was removed from last week.

It’s the highest total since Feb. 15, new state data shows.