Iowa COVID cases up 23% in past week

The state averaged a little more than 300 new confirmed COVID-19 cases per day in the past week, a 23% increase over the previous week, according to Iowa Department of Public Health data released Wednesday.

That continues an upward trend since late March, when the number of weekly cases had diminished to one of the coronavirus pandemic’s lowest infection rates of about 70 per day for the state.

IDPH reported 2,114 new cases on Wednesday, along with four new deaths, the lowest number of weekly reported deaths in months. It’s unclear when those deaths occurred.

Hospitalizations increased slightly from last week, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data. On Wednesday, there were 86 people infected by the coronavirus receiving inpatient treatment at Iowa hospitals. Of those, nine were under intensive care.

Three Iowa counties — Howard, Johnson and Poweshiek — have elevated levels of community transmission of the virus, according to a report late last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those counties have medium spread, whereas the rest of the counties were listed as low.

The low, medium and high rankings are based on per-capita infection rates and hospitalizations. The CDC recommends people wear masks indoors in public places when there is high community spread. An updated report is expected Thursday.

Although infection rates are increasing, they still pale in comparison to the pandemic peak in January, when more than 5,000 new cases were being confirmed each day on average.