Iowa’s COVID-19 infection rate increases but at slower pace

The number of new coronavirus infections tracked by the state increased this past week, but it was a smaller increase than last week’s relatively large jump, according to Iowa Department of Health and Human Services data.

The state on Wednesday reported 3,704 new documented infections among those who had not previously contracted COVID-19. That was about a 6% increase in the state’s weekly infection rate.

The total number of new reported infections might have been as high as 4,921, based on state testing data — a 7% increase from last week. Those positive test results include an unspecified number of infections among those who had COVID-19 earlier in the pandemic.

The state does not report those reinfections to federal health officials as part of Iowa’s weekly case numbers. It also does not track the results of rapid, at-home tests.

Documented infections increased at least 28% last week.

Wastewater in the Des Moines metro area has shown a sharp increase in coronavirus concentrations since the beginning of November, according to sampling by the Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority.

And on Tuesday, Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines began requiring employees, patients and visitors to wear masks in waiting rooms for its emergency department, urgent care clinics, and lab and radiology departments, according to its website. The hospital cited a high risk in Polk County for respiratory illness identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet the CDC ranked the threat of COVID-19 low in the metro area in a report late last week. The threat is medium or high in about half of the state’s counties, mostly in the northeastern half of Iowa but also in a cluster of southwest counties.

The number of people who are infected with COVID-19 and receiving inpatient treatment at Iowa hospitals was roughly unchanged on Wednesday from a week ago, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There were 256 hospitalized, of which 16 were under intensive care.

The state also reported 27 new deaths linked to the virus for a total of 10,343 since the start of the pandemic. It’s unclear from state data when those deaths occurred.

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