Three more north-central Iowans dead from COVID, case counts and hospitalizations continue to rise in the ergion

MASON CITY — North-central Iowa saw another week of rising numbers of new COVID-19 cases and more unvaccinated people landing in the hospital.

According to the new statistics released on Wednesday afternoon by the Iowa Department of Public Health, 664 new cases of COVID were identified in the last week in our listening area of Cerro Gordo and the eight surrounding counties. That compares to 531 new cases reported in the previous week.

Three more deaths were reported in our listening area, one each in Cerro Gordo, Butler and Hancock counties, to bring the area’s total since the start of the pandemic to 368.

The seven-day and 14-day positivity rates continue to climb in the listening area as well. The seven-day rate is at 10.6%, compared to 9.2% last week, while the 14-day rate is at 9.9%, compared to 8.2% last week.

47 people are currently hospitalized in the north-central medical region, compared to 42 last Wednesday. 13 are in an intensive care unit. Of those 47 patients, 38 were not vaccinated, with all 15 of the patients under the age of 60 falling into that category. 10 of the 13 patients in their 60s were not vaccinated, seven of the 11 patients in their 70s were not vaccinated, and six of the eight in their 80s had not received the vaccine.

 

Deaths	Total	Underlying Cause	Contributing Factor	New
Cerro Gordo	105	88	17	1
Butler	37	31	6	1
Floyd	42	32	10
Franklin	24	21	3
Hancock	37	29	8	1
Mitchell	43	40	3
Winnebago	31	26	5
Worth	8	7	1
Wright	41	34	7
Area Total	368	308	60	3
Last week total	365	307	58	3

 

 

Confirmed Cases	Total	New
Cerro Gordo	7058	159
Butler	2070	45
Floyd	2246	93
Franklin	1689	39
Hancock	1878	59
Mitchell	1664	85
Winnebago	1903	69
Worth	1067	49
Wright	2369	66
Area Total	21944	664
Last week total	21280	531

 

 

Positivity rate	7-day %	14-day %		Prev 7-day %	Prev 14-day %
Cerro Gordo	9	8.9		9.4	8.5
Butler	7.3	6.5		5	4.8
Floyd	12.1	11.6		10.6	9.8
Franklin	8.7	6.5		6.9	6.3
Hancock	12.1	11.2		9.7	6.5
Mitchell	13.1	11.9		9	6.6
Winnebago	10.5	11.2		11.4	10.5
Worth	15.9	13.9		11.3	11.6
Wright	12.5	11.8		9.9	11.4
Area Total	10.6	9.9		9.2	8.2

 

 

Hospitalized	Wednesday	Last Wednesday
Total	47	42
ICU	13	12
Vaccinated	9
Non-Vaccinated	38