Michaela Ramm

As other local agencies are scaling back their contact tracing -- or discontinuing the effort altogether -- Johnson County Public Health has maintained its effort.

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.

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.

The Badge 713 Mental Health Scholarship was recently established to offer financial support for individuals in need of mental health services locally. The fund aims to be an extension of the public service first responders provide to their community, officials say.

Experts say the pandemic will become endemic, meaning hospitals likely will face COVID-19 for the foreseeable future. As they prepare for long-term response, area hospital leaders say they face a number of challenges around recruiting and retaining an adequate health care workforce.

Since work-from-home began, people nationwide have been experiencing more pain and musculoskeletal issues as a result of poor posture. Mike Powell, a Cedar Rapids chiropractor, shares strategies for improving ergonomics.

The number of patients hospitalized for the coronavirus in Iowa dropped this week, the first decline following six consecutive weeks of increases, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Despite that, total available ICU beds dipped to another all-time low this past week, reaching just 130 available beds on Tuesday.

Cedar Rapids has been sampling wastewater to determine the spread of COVID in the community, and recent data collection shows concentration of the virus in Cedar Rapids’ sewage is “more pronounced than the number of cases indicated by Linn County Public Health.”

Although the average number of patients and residents decreased over the past five years, the total cost to maintain Iowa’s six state-run institutions has increased according to a new report from the Iowa State Auditor’s Office.

Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa says its surgeons introduced an new sinus imaging system earlier this year that uses augmented reality to guide surgical procedures.

Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids have postponed all elective and nonemergent surgeries through Christmas, effective immediately. The decision comes just a day after Iowa broke records for COVID-19 hospitalizations, surpassing more than 800 patients this week.

Iowa reported 823 individuals have been hospitalized as a result of the coronavirus this past week, the highest total seen in 2021. The last time hospitalizations were at or above 800 was more than a year ago.

Throughout much of the pandemic, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics offered its cardiac rehabilitation services through a virtual format, helping patients from the comfort of their own homes. But other hospitals opted to keep rehabilitation facilities open, noting that most patients prefer the benefits of in-person care.

On Dec. 14, 2020, an emergency department nurse at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics became the first person in Iowa to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. One year later, nearly 2 million Iowans have been fully vaccinated, but UIHC say there’s still work to be done in order to control the pandemic.

A Mount Pleasant woman faces drug-related charges after Iowa City police say an investigation determined she “is involved in the sale of narcotics with a co-conspirator in the Coralville/Iowa City area.”