Marshall County’s COVID-19 death total reached 53 this week with three more recorded.

Iowa has 3,354 deaths since the start of the pandemic including 234 in the last week and 97 since yesterday.

The Iowa Department of Public Health COVID-19 dashboard is showing conflicting data on the cumulative total of cases. Summary statistics displays 262,209 and 277,297 positive cases.

Hospitalizations and infection spread are beginning to slow across the state with Iowa’s positivity rate in the past 14 days dropping to 13.7 percent. Marshall County’s rate dropped from 11.8 percent to 9 percent this week.

There are 746 hospitalized patients including 95 admitted in the last 24 hours. This includes 146 patients in intensive care and 87 on ventilators. It is the third consecutive week hospitalizations have declined, but the number of severe cases persists.

While coronavirus cases are just starting to trend downward, at least according to the IDPH website, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in a press conference Wednesday she will ease some restrictions aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus. Bars and restaurants are no longer required to close in-person service at 10 p.m. Groups are still expected to social distance 6 feet apart and groups are limited to eight people per table. Limits on gatherings — 15 people indoors and 30 outdoors — are eliminated. Sporting events are open to anyone within the household of the participants.

Meanwhile, the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered this week. On Monday, David Conway, a 39-year old emergency department nurse at University of Iowa Health Care, was the first person in Iowa to receive the vaccine.

Reynolds said the IDPH website will soon provide data on how many people have been vaccinated.

IDPH sent a press release Wednesday stating Iowa will not receive the volume of vaccines it anticipated. The federal government notified IDPH it will receive about 30 percent less than expected.

“We are working to gain confirmation and additional details from our federal partners. It will take us some time to work through next steps and adjust our planning.”

A majority of those who have died from the virus in Iowa were 80 years old or older, yet younger people have also died. About 7 percent of the dead were 59 years old or younger. Ninety-two percent of all deaths, 3,174, were with preexisting conditions present. There are 277 people who died without a preexisting condition.

The numbers have not improved for Iowa’s long term care facilities. There are 147 facilities in outbreak status, including Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. As reported in the Dec. 11 issue of the Times-Republican, IDPH’s figures on the Veterans Home are disputed and appear inconsistent. IDPH currently reports 143 positive cases and 118 recoveries for IVH. Long term care facilities have heavily contributed to deaths in Iowa, reaching 1,135 as of Thursday.

According to USAfacts.org, a bipartisan website compiling nationwide COVID-19 data, there have been more than 16.4 million known cases and 298,994 deaths in the United States. Iowa has had 258,253 cases and 3,336 deaths. Marshall County tallied 3,775 cases, 9,589 per 100,000 population, at 53 deaths.

Marshall County has the 15th highest number of total COVID-19 cases in Iowa

The counties with highest numbers include:

CUMULATIVE CASES ACTIVE CASES

Polk — 38,254 8,297

Linn — 15,639 3,012

Scott — 13,149 3,433

Black Hawk — 11,950 1,952

Woodbury — 11,600 1,833

Johnson — 10,440 1,856

Dubuque — 10,109 1,658

Pottawattamie — 7,598 2,093

Story — 7,520 1,522

Dallas — 7,285 1,555

Webster — 4,153 981

Sioux — 4,122 649

Cerro Gordo — 4,063 1,013

Clinton — 3,836 916

Marshall — 3,803 610

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