The number of COVID-19 patients in Iowa is at the lowest point in two weeks
After a week of Iowa hospitals contending with more than 800 COVID-19 patients, and regularly breaking records for the year, the number of people hospitalized with the disease has fallen to just under 750, according to a Wednesday update by the state health department. The update shows 747 people in Iowa’s hospitals with the disease on Tuesday, down from a high of 843 on Dec.12 and the fewest number of pandemic patients in the state since Dec.5. However, the number of confirmed new cases reported week-over-week is relatively steady, at 10,381. The state has averaged about 10,800 new cases weekly since the seven-day period beginning Nov.18. More: Drake men’s basketball Las Vegas game canceled after COVID-19 issues within Saint Louis program Dr. Aneesa Afroze, an infectious disease specialist at MercyOne Medical Center, said she hasn’t seen the relief of fewer patients during her shifts. That may be due to the hospital’s central location, and being better equipped to handle patients than some other hospitals that more acutely feel thin holiday staffing levels. Thanksgiving travel helped fuel the current surge, she said, and she expects the same from Christmas. And now, the spread may be bolstered by the new, highly transmissible omicron variant. A statistical model done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the omicron variant is already the dominant strain in the United States, and in the neighboring six-state region that includes Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. However, in the four-state region of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, the delta strain is still dominant. In Iowa, there are 26 confirmed cases of omicron infection, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. One of those cases involved a Polk County resident who hadn’t traveled recently, leading officials to assume it may be spreading the community. More: Omicron coronavirus variant confirmed in 18 Iowa residents, appears to be spreading in community Afroze noted that neighboring region includes big metro areas, like Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis, where the virus is known to spread faster than more rural states like Iowa.
