COVID-19 hospitalizations increase, but new cases slowly decline

Iowa has surpassed 800,000 total coronavirus cases since the pandemic began in the state in March 2020, according to new state and federal coronavirus data released this week.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 3,980 new cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days, continuing the slow decline of new infections over the past few weeks.

Last week, 3,988 cases were reported, and 3,919 cases were reported the week before.

To date, Iowa has had 800,176 total coronavirus cases in the past two years — though the actual total is likely higher, given the availability of at-home test kits.

The number of new cases reported in Linn and Johnson counties, however, increased in the past week, state data shows.

Linn County reported 359 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, an increase from the 348 reported last week. In total, the county has tallied 56,020 cases since the pandemic began.

Johnson County added 338 new cases in the past week, an increase from the 279 cases reported last week. To date, 38,688 coronavirus cases have been reported in the county in the past two years.

Community transmission

As of Monday, both Linn and Johnson counties continue to have “high” COVID-19 community transmission levels, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, the counties classified with “substantial” and “moderate” community transmission levels continue to outnumber those with “high” transmission levels. One western Iowa county was in the “low” category.

Hospitalizations

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 increased this week, federal health data shows.

Hospitalizations reached 190 Wednesday, compared to 162 patients the week before. A month ago, 186 patients were hospitalized.

Fourteen COVID-19 patients were in intensive care this past week, compared to 15 last week.

Deaths

Fifteen more Iowans have died as a result of the coronavirus, the state public health department confirmed on Wednesday. Last week, eight coronavirus deaths were confirmed.

In total, 9,703 Iowans have died as a result of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.

No 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

New data published earlier this week shows 62.4 percent of all Iowans are fully vaccinated, a slight increase from the 62.3 percent reported June 8, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

The state now updates vaccination totals on the first Tuesday of the month.

An additional 7,418 Iowans and non-Iowans completed their vaccine series in the past month, 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 as of this week.

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 as of this week.

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

John McGlothlen of The Gazette contributed to this report.