Wednesday COVID update — second straight day area active cases increase 100+, 14-day area average positivity rate at 16.1%

DES MOINES — The number of active COVID-19 cases in our listening area increased by over 100 for the second straight day as the number of hospitalizations continues to accelerate.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health data, 162 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in our listening area in the 24- hour period leading up to 11 o’clock this morning. 53 more people have recovered in that same time period with no new deaths being reported. The number of active cases in our area increased from 1604 at 11 o’clock Tuesday morning to 1713 at 11 o’clock this morning.

The 10-county 14-day average positivity rate was at 16.1%, up from 14.8% on Tuesday. All of the counties in our listening area now have a 14-day average rate above 10% with Hancock County being the highest at 20.8%. Cerro Gordo County’s 14-day average is 16.9%, up from 15.4% on Tuesday.

More than 60 counties have a positivity rate above 15%. None of Iowa’s 99 counties had a rate below 8%.

The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Iowa has risen over the past two weeks from about 26% on October 20th to nearly 39% on November 3rd, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. That rate places Iowa second in the nation behind South Dakota, which had a rate over 50%.

A new high of 777 people are now in hospitals statewide with COVID-19, with 164 additional people being admitted between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. Another record was set in the past 24 hours with 182 people in intensive care with serious COVID-19 illness.

In the north-central Iowa based Regional Medical Coordination Center 2, a new high of 44 people are in the hospital with nine in an ICU and five on ventilators. 

26 more deaths were reported statewide in the 24 hours leading up to 11 o’clock this morning to bring the total to 1781. 2818 more cases were reported in that same time period with 1226 new recovered cases.

The Associated Press contributed to this story