Marshall County Public Health Director Pat Thompson is urging all adults who have contact with children to get vaccinated.

“Our little kids can’t get vaccinated until they’re 12 years old,” she said. “One thing that would help would be if all adults that are around children would get vaccinated so our kids don’t get exposed to COVID.”

The start of school brings about another risk of virus spread as more people will be brought together in large groups indoors, Thompson said.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reports about 51-percent of the county has been fully vaccinated with 25,594 doses administered.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies Marshall County as a site of High Transmission. The 7-day positivity rate is 4.7 percent with 70 new cases in the last week, according to the IDPH. The state’s average is 8 percent.

COVID-19 protocols had relaxed for much of the summer but with the increasing prevalence of the Delta variant, the virus is seeing another surge. Thompson said the rise of the evolved strain is a reminder we aren’t done with COVID yet.

“The biggest thing we need to do is try to decrease our risks so we don’t have big outbreaks,” she said. “There is an uptick in positive cases that we’re seeing. I’m receiving more calls from people with questions on what to do to stop the spread because they’ve been exposed to COVID.”

IDPH reports four long-term care outbreaks in Marshall County. The sites of the outbreaks are not listed.

Across the state there are 396 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Sixty-five percent of these hospitalizations list COVID-19 infection as the primary diagnosis. Sixty-four people were admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours and there are 99 people in intensive care. Forty-five patients are on ventilators.

Thompson is unsure if we will see the level of COVID-19 activity we did last fall. She also noted IDPH is updating its numbers weekly, which is scaled back from a year ago.

The advice Thompson is sharing to avoid another COVID-filled fall is the same advice public health officials have been giving from the beginning: wash your hands, cover your cough, wear a mask and stay home when you’re sick.

“At the beginning of this, I thought it would take 2 to 5 years to be recovered. We’re coming on two years,” she said. “Do these things we ask you to and just hang in there. The idea is that someday we’ll be settled down and we will be. Hang in there and be kind to people.”

More information:

Marshall County Public Health Director Pat Thompson asks for people with hesitancy about receiving a vaccination to reach out to her with questions. She can be reached at pthompson@marshallcountyia.gov or by calling her office at 641-844-2799.

COVID-19 IN MARSHALL COUNTY

• 7 day percent of positive test rate: 4.7%

• 7 day number of cases: 70

• CDC transmission level: HIGH

• COVID vaccine doses: More than 39,500

• Fully vaccinated: 51.7%, 17,451

• 1-dose vaccinations: 3,212

• New deaths this week — 0

• Total deaths — 79