Total hospitalizations for COVID-19 fell below 400 for the first time since early October

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The total number of people hospitalized due to the new coronavirus in Iowa has dropped to less than 400 after spending more than three and a half months above that level, new state data show on Sunday.

As of 10:30 am, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported that 847 people who tested positive for COVID-19 had been added to the state total since the same time on Saturday morning. Overall, 312,811 people tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic. A total of 274,103 people are considered recovered, an increase of 914.

An additional death due to COVID-19 has been reported to the state in the past 24 hours, totaling 4,488 people in Iowa.

382 people are hospitalized in Iowa due to the virus, a net reduction of 37 since the last report on Saturday. This is the lowest total number of hospitalizations since October 5, 2020. Iowa saw a total of 109 consecutive days on this stretch of at least 400 patients hospitalized at the same time with COVID-19. The longest previous run of days over 400 patients was six in early May.

Iowa hospitals had a maximum of 1,527 patients so far on November 18, 2020.

79 of these people are in intensive care units, a net increase of three. 36 patients required the use of a ventilator, a net reduction of two. 51 newly admitted patients were registered in the last 24-hour reporting period, less than the 64 people from the previous period.

Another 2,751 people had test results reported by public and private laboratories in the past 24 hours. The positivity rate for this batch of tests was 30.8%, slightly higher than the 29.0% the previous day. The positivity rate calculated using this method may differ from the number on the state coronavirus panel, due to the fact that it uses the number of people tested, not the total number of tests, including people who have been tested repeatedly.

A total of 1,447,213 people in Iowa have been tested since the pandemic began.

The state did not update its vaccination data on Saturday morning.

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