Statewide Iowa — With thousands of Iowans getting vaccinated daily for coronavirus, Governor Kim Reynolds says the state’s efforts to fight the disease continue to strengthen.
Some 90-thousand doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered statewide in the past week and the governor says fewer people across Iowa are needing critical care.
(As above) “Yesterday, there were 292 Iowans hospitalized due to COVID-19. That is an 80% decrease since our all-time high in mid-November,” Reynolds says, “and it’s the first time since September that hospitalizations have dropped below 300.”
The governor says 49 new patients were admitted to Iowa hospitals in the past 24 hours, down from a record of 243 in one day in mid-November. Of those now in hospitals for treatment of the virus, she says 67 are in intensive care units, down 90-percent from the peak three months ago.
(As above) “Our long-term care facility outbreaks have dropped to 33 from an all-time high of 166 long-term care outbreaks,” Reynolds says, “and we continue to see that number decline and we continue to see outbreaks among residents and staff decline as well.”
According to a New York Times report, only eight-percent of Iowans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, the fourth-lowest rate in the nation. The state health department’s coronavirus website says more than 326-thousand Iowans have tested positive for COVID, while nearly 52-hundred have died.
