Johnson County Public Health officially ended its coronavirus contact tracing efforts on Tuesday, saying the current surge in new cases has made it nearly impossible for contact tracers to conduct investigations in a timely manner.
QHC Facilities, based in Clive, operates eight skilled nursing facilities including Crestview Acres in Marion as well as in Tama, Madison, Humboldt, Jackson, Webster and Polk counties and two assisted living centers.
The highly transmissible omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has become the dominant strain in Iowa, and its continued spread will result in a peak of new infections by the end of the month, University of Iowa Health Care officials say.
Linn, Johnson counties seeing positivity rates above 20 percent
The number of patients seeking medical care continues overwhelmingly to be those who are not fully vaccinated.
As other local agencies are scaling back their contact tracing -- or discontinuing the effort altogether -- Johnson County Public Health has maintained its effort.
The FDA also said everyone 12 and older who's eligible for a Pfizer booster can get one as early as five months after their last dose rather than six months.
Twitter on Sunday banned the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple violations of its COVID-19 misinformation policy, according to a statement from the company.
Henry was the most popular name for boys born at Cedar Rapids hospitals in 2021. For girls, Ava and Nora took the number one picks.
In Iowa, according to figures released Wednesday by state public health officials, 16 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state — all unvaccinated.
Effective Friday, the Linn County Public Health department will no longer conduct COVID-19 contact tracing efforts for county residents. The county agency is following its cue from the state, which ended statewide virus surveillance this past August.
Johnson and Linn counties are seeing their highest weekly totals for COVID-19 cases in 13 months as positivity rates continue to trend up, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
The fast-spreading mutant version of the virus has cast a pall over Christmas and New Year's, forcing communities to scale back or call off their festivities just weeks after it seemed as if Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season.
Family of man who died from an infection unrelated to COVID believes he would have had a better chance of surviving had his transfer to a larger hospital not been delayed because of the pandemic.
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