Iowa’s weekly COVID-19 death rate lowest in 8 months

With one COVID-19 death in Iowa reported Sunday, the state saw the weekly average of deaths caused by the coronavirus dip to the lowest rate in nearly eight months.

The latest confirmed COVID-19 death was of someone between the ages of 41 and 60 who died in February in Black Hawk County. That brings the total of the state's confirmed COVID-19 deaths to 5,675 since the first was reported nearly one year ago - March 24, 2020.

As of Sunday morning, Iowa's rolling average was five COVID-19 deaths a day. That average is the lowest since the week ending July 25, 2020, which also was an average of five.

Vaccinations

As of Sunday, 476,398 Iowans had been fully vaccinated against the disease, public health data showed - an increase of 9,582 over a day earlier. The means nearly 19 percent of Iowans over age 16 have been vaccinated. The Pfizer-BioNTech shot has emergency approval for age 16 and up, but the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines are for 18 and up only.

In all, Iowa providers have administered 1,278,654 doses, according to the data, an increase of 22,093 since the last daily report.

In Linn County, the total number of doses administered reached 93,226 on Sunday, and the total number of doses in Johnson County reached 74,334.

New cases

In the 24-hour period ending at 11 a.m. Sunday, 317 new cases were reported, bringing the total number of cases seen in Iowa to 345,676.

Linn County added 16 of those cases for a total of 19,713. Johnson County added 13 for a total of 13,326.

No new cases were reported for people in the education occupation, but 43 new cases were reported for children in Iowa up to age 17.

For the fourth day in a row, the state reported no new outbreaks in its long-term care facilities.

Hospitalizations

The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in Iowa hospitals inched up from 172 to 174 in the 24-hour period. The number of patients in intensive care rose from 38 to 41, but the number of patients on ventilators dropped from 20 to 16.