Hunter
03/24/22
Pandemic numbers continue to fall in Iowa, as the CDC has put nearly all of Iowa’s 99 counties in the low transmission level category.
The state Department of Public Health reported 720 new cases in the last week on Wednesday, a significant drop from the 1008 cases reported the week before. Only Appanoose and Davis counties in the southern part of the state are rated in the medium transmission level.
Federal guidelines indicate that areas in medium or low levels of transmission don’t need to wear masks indoors or in public spaces.
The lull may be short-lived, as a new omicron variant is being detected in parts of Europe and Asia. The CDC says the sub-variant, BA.2, has accounted for 35 percent of the new infections in the US in the past week. In Iowa, that figure is at 19 percent.
53 new deaths from COVID were reported, putting the total over the past two years to over 9400.
65 and a half percent of Iowans aged 5 and older have been fully vaccinated against the virus; in Johnson County, that figure is at 76 and a half, one of the highest in the state. Linn County is at 70.7 percent.