New COVID-19 cases jump 30 percent in Iowa

Iowa saw a 30 percent jump in new coronavirus infections in the past seven days, new state and federal coronavirus data released this week shows.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 5,187 new COVID-19 cases in the past seven days — a 30 percent jump from the 3,980 cases reported last week.

The spike comes after case counts had remained in the 3,900 range for the past four weeks.

To date, Iowa has had 805,363 total coronavirus cases in the past two years — though the actual total is likely higher, given the availability of at-home test kits.

Linn County reported 498 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, a 39 percent increase compared to the week before when 359 new cases were reported. Linn County has tallied 56,518 cases since March 2020 when the pandemic reached Iowa.

Johnson County reported 366 new cases in the past seven days, a small increase from the 338 COVID-19 cases reported last week. To date, the county has reported 39,054 total cases since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations

Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past week totaled 229 in Iowa, compared to 190 patients hospitalized last week, according to federal health data.

The number of intensive care patients also increased to 23 as of Wednesday, compared to 14 patients last week and 15 patients the week before.

Community transmission

As of Monday, dozens of Iowa counties — including Linn and Johnson — were classified as having “high” COVID-19 community transmission levels, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dozens more counties were classified as having “substantial” transmission — outnumbering those labeled with “moderate” levels. No county was in the “low” category as of this week.

Deaths

Fifteen more Iowans have died as a result of the coronavirus, the same total as last week, according to the state public health department.

In total, 9,718 Iowans have died as a result of COVID-19 since March 2020.

No COVID-19 deaths were reported in the past week in Linn and Johnson counties. Linn County has an overall coronavirus death toll of 595, and Johnson County has had 155 residents die as a result of the virus.

Vaccinations

The latest COVID-19 vaccination data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is from July 5. The state now updates vaccination totals on the first Tuesday of the month.

As of this month, 62.4 percent of all Iowans are fully vaccinated, a slight increase from the 62.3 percent reported June 8.

The vaccination rate for Iowans aged 5 and older is 66.6 percent as of this month, an increase from the 66.4 percent reported last month.

An additional 7,418 Iowans and non-Iowans completed their vaccine series between June and July, bringing the total fully vaccinated population to 1,940,421.

The number of fully vaccinated and boosted individuals in Iowa reached 1,069,826 this month, an increase of 17,280 individuals from last month.

In Linn County, 67.2 percent of the total county population and 71.7 percent of those aged 5 and older were fully vaccinated.

Johnson County reported 73.3 percent of its total population and 77.8 percent of its population aged 5 and older were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Comments: (319) 398-8469; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com

John McGlothlen of The Gazette contributed to this report.