Hunter
05/12/22
COVID 19 cases have nearly tripled over the past four weeks in Iowa, with Johnson and Linn Counties now being considered “high transmission” counties by the Centers for Disease Control.
The other “high transmission” counties are Cedar, Black Hawk, Dubuque, Howard and Mitchell.
The Gazette reports 3172 new coronavirus cases in the last week, up from the 2114 cases reported last week, the 1063 a month ago, and the 478 six weeks ago. Hospitalizations rose over 40 percent, from 86 to 124.
Johnson County had the highest positivity rate in the state for the third week in a row, with 375 positive tests per 100,000 people.
The numbers are still nowhere near what they were in January when the Omicron variant was running rampant across the country.
Although the numbers are not causing health authorities to panic, they are suggesting that those in high transmission areas return to mitigation strategies like wearing masks in public indoor places, social distancing, and frequent hand sanitizing. They’re also encouraging people to begin their series of COVID vaccinations or get up to date on them if they haven’t done so yet. Johnson County remains the only county in the state that has gone over the 70 percent threshold of total population vaccinated, at 72.7 percent. Linn County has 71.2 percent of their population aged 5 and older fully vaccinated.