Indications the COVID-19 pandemic was receding in Iowa were put on hold Wednesday, as new data from the Iowa Department of Public Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show increasing numbers of new reported cases and hospitalizations.
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Iowa, which had declined for seven consecutive weeks before Wednesday, rose to 1,915 this week, or an average of about 274 per day. That’s about 60 more cases per day than last week, and the most since September.
Those numbers likely do not capture the full extent of the pandemic in Iowa, as residents who test positive using an at-home test are typically not included in the state health department’s data
The latest data from the Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority, which monitors the concentration of the coronavirus in the city’s sewage, shows that the effective concentration has remained low as of last week. That metric has historically been correlated with increases or decreases in COVID-19 case counts.
COVID-19 hospitalizations, which had declined over each of the past two weeks, increased slightly this week, according to the federal health and human services department. There were 153 people hospitalized in Iowa with COVID-19 this week, up from 144. Of those, 19 required intensive care for COVID-19 complications.
The state health department reported an additional 25 COVID-19 deaths this week, raising Iowa’s pandemic death toll to 10,177. That number is likely higher, as it takes several weeks for the state health department to verify and publicly report COVID-19 deaths.
The latest data in Iowa since March 2020 for the pandemic, as of midnight Oct. 26, compared with one week earlier:
The Iowa Department of Public Health reports vaccination data once per month. As of Oct. 3, 59.6% of Iowa’s population were considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19, having received their initial one- or two-dose vaccine sequence.
Note: Hospitalization data for COVID-19 is no longer available through the Iowa Department of Public Health. The data below is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com, 515-284-8532, and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.
