Iowa COVID-19 hospitalizations increase despite flat infection rate

An average of 132 people infected by the coronavirus were receiving inpatient treatment in Iowa hospitals on any given day last week — a 14% increase from the week prior, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

At the same time, the state’s infection rate remained roughly steady. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday reported 1,581 new COVID-19 infections for the past week among people who were not previously infected. That is a 3% decrease from the previous week.

However, the state also reported on Wednesday 2,289 total positive tests for the week, which was a 2% increase. Those tests include reinfections of people who were previously infected. The state does not include them in its case reports to federal health officials.

The state also reported 18 new deaths among infected people, for a total of 10,671 since the start of the pandemic. It’s unclear when those deaths occurred, but that was among the smallest number of weekly reported deaths in months.

The omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 now accounts for an estimated 69% of infections in a four-state region that includes Iowa, the CDC reports.