Iowa already through one-third of its COVID-19 vaccination supply

Thousands of Iowans rang in the New Year with a COVID-19 vaccination as the state continues to distribute vaccines to health care workers and long term care residents.

By January 1, Governor Kim Reynolds was reporting that more than 25,000 Iowans had received the vaccine, distributing 30% of the state’s currently allotted doses.

The state’s coronavirus tracking website is also expected to be updated soon with information about vaccination rates.

As of Sunday, January 3, there have been 284,715 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, increasing the 275,295 total from the week prior by 9,420, a slight increase over the previous week’s new cases.

In the last two weeks, 5% of new cases have been among the elderly (age 80+), 17% among older adults (60-79); 30% among middle aged adults (40-59); 36% among young adults (18-39); and 12% among children.

With 244,016 considered recovered, that leaves roughly 36,753 Iowans currently known to be fighting the disease, dropping the number of active cases by roughly 6,000.

Hospitalizations continue to trend downward in the New Year as well, with 571 hospitalized as of Sunday, including 117 in an ICU.

The holidays and winter storm conditions were thought to impact COVID-19 testing across the state, but while results may have been temporarily delayed, it does not seem to have caused an issue in the long term. A total of 3,113,806 tests have now been given to 1,365,314 individuals since the pandemic began, including 2,241,306 PCR tests and 872,500 antigen tests. In the last week the state has processed 51,462 PCR tests and 61,847 antigen tests.

In addition, 87,267 Iowans have undergone serology testing for coronavirus antibodies, which would indicate that they have had the virus. Of that number, 9,083, about 10%, have tested positive for antibodies.

Unfortunately, the New Year has also seen an increase in reported fatal cases. The state has reported an additional 201 deaths in the last week, bringing the total death count in Iowa to 3,946.

In total, approximately 2,311 elderly (58.59%); 1,360 older adults (34.49%), 233 middle aged adults (5.91%), 38 young adults (.96%), and at least one child (.05%) have died from the virus since the pandemic began.

For the second week in a row, of the new deaths only two have been attributed to outbreaks in long term care facilities, bringing the total number of fatal cases in these facilities to 1,139.

The number of long term care facilities with outbreaks continues to drop this week, with a reduction of 19 bringing the total to 107 facilities consisting of 4,494 positive individuals with 3,023 considered recovered.