Iowa adds another 42 confirmed COVID-19 deaths

Forty-two Iowans died as a result of COVID-19 in a month, the state Department of Public Health reported Wednesday as all but six counties now are in the red zone for high transmission rates of the disease.

Though the number of new cases and hospitalizations and deaths due to the infection are far less than a peak last winter, Iowa is experiencing a third surge of the disease that’s being fueled by the more contagious delta variant despite the widespread availability of a free vaccine to ward off the worst symptoms — including death.

Iowa has not added 42 recently confirmed COVID-19 deaths under a single day since April 3 when the tally rose by 68 deaths. And even then, most of the increase was due to the state data being updated with previous deaths.

The data released Wednesday, which reported the newly confirmed deaths six paragraphs into a news release, does not provide details of the ages and locations. The state said all occurred between July 24 and Aug. 22.

“We have many tools we need to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and the single most important tool we have is the vaccine, which is highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death,” Public Health Director Kelly Garcia said in a statement. “For anyone who was waiting for the assurance of full (Food and Drug Administration) authorization, I urge you to schedule your appointment today.”

The department noted that “the majority of current COVID-19 hospitalizations are among unvaccinated Iowans.”

It said that 79 percent of the people hospitalized Aug. 25 with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 had not been vaccinated. It also said that 86 percent of the COVID-19 patients in intensive care were not vaccinated before becoming infected.

The current hospitalization rate in Iowa is highest for adults over 40 — 87 percent of the hospitalizations are of that age group, the department said. Children under 18 make up 2 percent of virus hospitalizations, officials said.

The Public Health Department’s statements Wednesday came independently of the state’s latest schedule of regularly releasing data on the virus to the public. Whereas much of the data had been updated throughout the day and reported to Iowans at coronavirus.iowa.gov, the state earlier this summer announced it would decrease the frequency announced on that website to only once a week — late Wednesday nights.

Its most recent public data shows there were 257 patients in Iowa’s hospitals undergoing treatment for a primary diagnosis of COVID-19.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93 of Iowa’s 99 counties as of Wednesday are now in the red zone for high transmission rates. Only Adair, Decatur, Howard, Monona, Palo Alto and Union counties are rated less. But even they are all rated as having “substantial” virus transmission rates.

That means that all of Iowa falls under CDC advice for people — even the vaccinated — to wear masks in indoor spaces like stores and schools.