Northwest Iowa — The number of positive COVID test results has exploded in the four-county area since last week’s report.
According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, 714 new positive COVID test results were reported in Lyon, Osceola, O’Brien and Sioux counties within the past seven days. That’s up from 338 one week ago, an increase of more than 100%.
Those positives break down to 366 in Sioux County, 143 in O’Brien County, 135 in Lyon County and 70 in Osceola County, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.
Sadly, there was one additional COVID-related death to report in the area this week. For the second consecutive week, a resident of Osceola County lost their battle with a COVID-related illness, bringing the Osceola County total to 20 since the start of the pandemic. Sioux County remains at 78 deaths, O’Brien at 63 and Lyon at 44 COVID-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
As for adult vaccination rates in the four-county area: O’Brien County has the highest percentage of vaccinated adults at 61.5%, up 0.1% from one week ago; 55.0% of Osceola County adults are fully vaccinated, an increase of 0.1% from last week’s report; Sioux County stands at 52.7% of fully vaccinated adults, up 0.2% from one week ago; and Lyon County has 52.3% of its adult population fully vaccinated, up 0.3% from last week.
Buena Vista, here in northwest Iowa, still has the highest percentage of fully vaccinated adults in the state, with 81.6%, while Davis County, in southeast Iowa, remains the least vaccinated county in Iowa, with 47.5% of its adults being fully vaccinated.
