By JOE FISHER

TIMES-REPUBLICAN

Marshall County is reporting four new COVID-19 related deaths in less than a week, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

There have been 44 deaths in the county.

Due to Thanksgiving on Thursday, this story is being written a day early.

The county has reported at least one death each week for four consecutive weeks.

In Iowa 2,271 people have died from coronavirus infection including 47 new deaths reported Wednesday. There have been 218,942 positive cases and 122,047 recoveries in the state.

Marshall County has had 3,397 positive cases and 2,068 recoveries. There are more than 1,200 active cases in the county. Thirty-two positive cases were diagnosed on Tuesday. The 14 day positivity rate is 18.1 percent which is slightly below the state’s average of 19.1 percent.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Iowa has the sixth highest cases per 100,000 population in the country with 112.5. North Dakota is the worst with 158.5. More densely populated states like New York and California are far lower with 32.3 and 29.3 cases per 100,000 respectively.

Iowa’s one death per 100,000 population is seventh worst of U.S. states and territories. South Dakota has the most deaths (2.8) per 100,000.

Fifty-two percent of Iowa’s COVID deaths were of people 80 years old or older and 24 percent were 70-79 years old. Fifty-three percent of those who died were male. Fifty-eight percent had preexisting conditions.

On Wednesday, 1,305 were hospitalized with infection, including 198 admitted in the last 24 hours. Of those patients, 943 had COVID-19 listed as the primary diagnosis. There were 275 people in intensive care and 150 on ventilators.

Twenty-six percent of hospitalized patients were between 70-79 years old and 27 percent were 80 years old or older. Ten percent of patients were 18-39 years old.

According to the CDC, 837 health care workers have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

There are 1,441 correctional facilities in the U.S. with positive cases. Iowa has had 3,653 cases and eight deaths related to correctional facilities.

The rise in long-term care outbreaks continued, even accelerated in Iowa this week. There are 149 active outbreaks, up from 114 last Thursday. Fifty percent of the infections tied to long-term care facilities are symptomatic. A majority of the infected, 68 percent, have been female. There have been 1,023 deaths related to long-term care outbreaks.

Two facilities in Marshall County are reporting outbreaks: Iowa Veterans Home and Southridge Specialty Care. Iowa Veterans Home has eight positive cases, according to IDPH. Southridge Specialty Care has 27 positive cases and nine recoveries.

USAfacts.org counts 254,575 deaths in the U.S. and more than 12.2 million known cases. It lists Iowa with 211,722 cases and 6,710.5 cases per 100,000 population. Marshall County has 3,278 known cases and 8,326.3 per 100,000 according to the website.

Marshall County has the 13th highest number of total COVID-19 cases in Iowa

The counties with highest numbers include:

CUMULATIVE CASES ACTIVE CASES

Polk — 32,343 1,582

Linn — 13,649 7,651

Black Hawk –10,600 4,594

Scott — 10,595 5,580

Woodbury — 10,003 2,463

Johnson — 9,237 3,250

Dubuque — 8,925 3,380

Story — 6,597 2,498

Dallas — 6,597 2,559

Pottawattamie — 6,925 2,455

Sioux — 3,568 1,016

Webster — 3,472 1,522

Marshall –3,397 1,285

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Contact Joe Fisher at jfisher@timesrepublican.com