Less than five months after the state reported its first death from COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — Iowa has …
Less than five months after the state reported its first death from COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — Iowa has now surpassed 1,000 COVID-19 deaths. The state hit that tragic benchmark late Tuesday, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health data. Experts say the toll will keep climbing as the virus continues to spread, especially if Iowans ease up on precautions. “It is time for our community to get serious about mitigating COVID-19,” Helen Eddy, director of Polk County’s Health Department, said at a meeting Tuesday about the pandemic. Eddy, like others, urged people to wear masks in public; to wash hands frequently; to socially distance; and to stay home if they’re feeling ill. Iowa is in the minority of states without a mask mandate, but many private businesses have moved to require face coverings. Some Iowa municipalities have done the same, despite state officials saying they lack authority to do so. “We need to stick with what works and understand that our individual actions impact our entire community. We must do this together, for each other,” she said. A thousand deaths in five months means COVID-19 is likely the third-leading cause of death in Iowa at the moment, behind heart disease and cancer, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on annual death rates. The trend puts COVID-19 on track to cause more deaths in a year than diabetes, flu/pneumonia, suicide and hypertension — each among Iowa’s 10 leading causes of death — did combined in 2017, the last year data was available from the CDC. Eighty-eight percent of Iowa’s COVID-19 deaths have come in people older than 60, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. More than half of Iowa’s deaths have been among residents of nursing homes, and outbreaks in those facilities have more than doubled in recent weeks. Dr. Yogesh Shah, a Des Moines geriatrician, said he doesn’t expect the threat to disappear immediately once a coronavirus vaccine becomes available. That’s especially true for elderly people, whose immune systems tend to have relatively weak responses to vaccines, he said. “If it’s like influenza, it’s going to be with us for many, many years, if not forever,” Shah, who is chief medical officer for Broadlawns Medical Center, said in an interview. Shah said the early wave of nursing home outbreaks was partly the result of the country’s poor preparation.
