COVID-19 hospitalizations rose steadily throughout October and don’t appear to be slowing down.

There are 605 Iowans hospitalized with the novel coronavirus, compared to 530 last week according to the Iowa Department of Public Health database. Data reported is calculated from Wednesday’s totals. There have been 113 new admissions in the 24 hours prior to this report. Of those hospitalized, 135 were admitted to intensive care and 56 are on ventilators.

Iowa has totaled 121,994 positive cases and 91,395 have recovered. On Wednesday, 1,133 new positive cases were confirmed.

Marshall County has recorded one COVID-19 related death this month, bringing its total to 36. In Iowa, 1,691 people have died.

Marshall County has the 13th highest total of cases in the state since the beginning of the pandemic with 2,111, up 160 since last week. Of the county’s cases 1,780 have recovered. There are 286 active cases including 35 new positive cases reported Wednesday.

As reported by the Times-Republican Thursday, two long-term care facilities in Marshall County have recorded an outbreak of positive cases this week. The Iowa Veterans Home had seven staff members test positive but residents remain COVID free. Southridge Specialty Care has nine cases listed on the IDPH dashboard and has declined to comment on these statistics.

There are 75 active outbreaks tied to long term care facilities in Iowa including four new outbreaks since Wednesday. Long term care facilities have been linked to 831 deaths.

Iowa has the fourth worst positivity rate of any state in the U.S. at 28.72 percent according to Johns Hopkins University. Only Idaho, South Dakota and Wyoming are worse. In May, the World Health Organization recommended states maintain a positivity rate less than 5 percent for 14 days before considering opening.

Marshall County schools have a 9.7 percent average positivity rate over the last 14 days.

USAfacts.org, a nonprofit organization which records and reports government data, reports 224,611 total deaths in the U.S., including 929 on Tuesday and 5,676 in the last week. There have been more than 8.6 million cases with 71,452 reported on Tuesday.

USAfacts data on Iowa and Marshall County varies from that reported by IDPH. According to USAfacts, Iowa has 117,630 known cases, 1,658 deaths and 3,728.3 cases per 100,000 population. Marshall County has 2,026 cases and 5,146.2 per 100,000 per population.

CDC data shows the virus is disproportionately impacting non-white Americans. According to its report on hospitalizations and death by race and ethnicity:

• Native Americans are 2.8 times more likely to contract, 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized and 1.4 times more likely to die from COVID-19.

• African Americans are 2.6 times more likely to contract, 4.7 times more likely to be hospitalized and 2.1 times more likely to die from COVID-19.

• Hispanic and Latinos are 2.8 times more likely to contract, 4.6 times more likely to be hospitalized and 1.1 times more likely to die from COVID-19.

• Asians are 1.1 times more likely to contract and 1.3 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19, but the rate of death is not different.

The counties with higher numbers include:

• Polk — 19,609

• Woodbury — 7,405

• Johnson — 5,997

• Linn — 5,935

• Black Hawk — 5,913

• Dubuque — 5,435

• Scott — 4,822

• Story — 4,092

• Dallas — 3,555

• Pottawattamie — 3,365

• Sioux — 2,519

• Buena Vista — 2,286

ACCORDING TO IDPH DATA:

Race:

Caucasian: 73 percent

African American: 5 percent

Asian: 2 percent

Native American: 0 percent

Hispanic or Latino: 11 percent

Sex:

Female: 51 percent

Male: 48 percent

Age:

0-17: 8 percent

18-40: 44 percent

41-60: 31 percent

61-80: 14 percent

80 or older: 4 percent

Marshall County

Active cases: 295

New Cases (last 24 hours): 28

New Deaths: 0

Contact Joe Fisher at 641-753-6611 or jfisher@timesrepublican.com