COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in Iowa

An additional 632 cases of COVID-19 were reported Monday in Iowa, along with eight more deaths, according to the New York Times’ COVID-19 tracker.

Over the past week, there has been an average of 893 new cases per day in Iowa, an increase of 38 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 is continuing to trend upward, as it has for the past week and a half. On Tuesday, IDPH reported 376 Iowans hospitalized with the virus — the highest number since May 27, and an increase of 23 from the previous day.

Also on Tuesday, IDPH reported a total of 59 Iowans being admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 during the previous 24 hours, an increase from the 51 reported the previous day.

When asked at a press conference Tuesday about the increase in hospitalizations, Gov. Kim Reynolds said, “I really want, at this point, to give a shout-out for an incredible team that I have, not only on my staff but at the Department of Public Health, the RMCC (Regional Medical Coordination Centers) regions, and the unprecedented collaboration that’s taking place with our health care systems across the state. And they talk at least once a day, if not multiple times per day. We’re monitoring where the upticks are at, we’re reaching out individually to those hospitals, to make sure that, you know, they still have bed capacity and if we’re meeting the staffing ratios. A lot of it is workforce, too, that really is a key element to them being able to staff the number of hospitalizations that we’re seeing. So we’re monitoring that.”

Reynolds said the number of Iowans on ventilators is “pretty stable and is actually coming down … So, again, our hospitals are doing a great job of managing it, but we’ve made it very clear: ‘If you need something, or we need to implement the surge plans or talk about the workforce or other issues that you may be having, we stand ready to help facilitate that.'”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Iowa had recorded at least 87,256 cases of COVID-19, along with 1,324 deaths, since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the New York Times’ COVID-19 tracker.

As is usually the case, the Times’ single-day tally of Iowa’s new infections and deaths conflicts with what is being reported by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

According to the IDPH COVID-19 website, there were only 208 new infections — less than one-third of the total reported by the New York Times — and one death on Monday.

State public health officials have acknowledged problems with data reporting, but only after those issues have come to light through media reports. The agency has blamed what it calls an “antiquated” computer system as the reason it had been under-reporting daily case counts earlier this summer.

Statewide, there are 50 nursing homes with current, active outbreaks, and 1,114 infections associated with those outbreaks.

The Iowa nursing home with the most infections associated with a current outbreak is the Good Samaritan home in Ottumwa, with 87 infections.

Currently, there are seven Polk County nursing homes with active outbreaks, and the number of staff and resident infections at those homes now totals 110.

The Polk County facilities, and the total number of staff and resident infections at each, have remained constant over the past several days. They are:

Calvin Community: 49

Iowa Jewish Senior Life Center: 15

On With Life: 6

Parkridge Specialty Care: 20

ManorCare of West Des Moines: 11

Mitchell Village Care Center: 4

Bishop Drumm Retirement Center: 5