Northwest Iowa — When measured against the population, O’Brien County has the second-highest COVID death rate of all the counties in Iowa.
The numbers are very small, but O’Brien County has lost 3.3 THOUSANDTHS of a percent of its population to COVID. Only Harrison County has had a higher rate, at about 3.5 thousandths of a percent. For comparison sake, Lyon County is 17th, with 1.8 thousandths of a percent, Sioux is 57th, with 1.1 thousandths of a percent, and Osceola County is 70th, with less than one-thousandth of a percent.
When deaths are compared to cases of COVID since the pandemic started, the news is a little better for O’Brien County, but the county still has the highest rate of the northwest Iowa counties. It’s number seven in the state. Lyon is 34th, Sioux is 76th, and Osceola is 83rd.
The density of cases since the pandemic started is high in northwest Iowa, with every county in the top 25. Of our four northwest Iowa counties, Sioux County has the greatest density at fifth place statewide. O’Brien is at 12th, Osceola is at 17th, and Lyon 19th.
The figures come from the Iowa Department of Public Health and the US Census Bureau.
