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The spread of COVID-19 in Iowa slowed slightly over the previous week, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health — an indication the wave fueled by the omicron variant may be starting to decline.
But experts say it’s too early to know for sure whether it has reached its peak.
After cresting above 1,000 patients early last week, the number of people hospitalized in Iowa with COVID-19 declined to 929 this week. That’s still higher than at any point during 2021, but it’s the first time that number has declined, week over week, in 2022.
The numbers of patients statewide requiring intensive care for COVID-19 complications, 165, and on ventilators, 77, also dropped this week. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that showed the omicron variant — despite causing high numbers of cases and hospitalizations — has led to fewer emergency department visits and ICU admissions and shorter hospital stays relative to overall case counts when compared to earlier COVID waves.
At Blank Children’s Hospital over the past month, doctors have seen a 300% increase in children that need to be hospitalized, a figure driven by COVID infections, said Dr. Joel Waddell, an infectious disease specialist there.
That increase aligns with when omicron became the predominant strain of coronavirus in the state, as well as when households started mixing for the holidays and after the return to school. Waddell expects that month-over-month increase to hit 400% by the end of the month.
Children, like adults, face a similar threat profile from omicron: Its infections are generally slightly less severe than previous strains. However, because it is so highly infectious, it can generate a larger pool of severely sick people.
Since Christmas, 240 children have been hospitalized statewide with COVID-19, though that doesn’t include children who recovered from COVID itself but had to be hospitalized because of conditions spurred by the disease.
On Wednesday, the state reported 35 children hospitalized with COVID-19, not including those who may be suffering from other COVID-caused syndromes. Four had been fully vaccinated. Not all of the patients were necessarily old enough to be vaccinated. The vaccination has been approved for people 5 and older.
The virus has hit some of the infants and children severely enough that they’ve needed to be placed on ventilators. While many children who contract COVID-19 have mild symptoms, Waddell said, not all are so lucky. It has killed nearly 900 children across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was a top 10 cause of death for children in 2021, Waddell said.
Others end up with a disorder called multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which, in short, happens when an immune system doesn’t shut down after fighting off COVID. It leads to the immune system attacking organs, and a majority of those children suffer from heart inflammation and inflammation of their coronary arteries, he said. Nearly all children who suffer the syndrome are hospitalized in the intensive care unit, Waddell said.
In some cases, their heart becomes too weak to pump blood on its own, requiring the child be constantly infused with medications to keep it going. While most children survive the syndrome, they will require long-term follow-ups with pediatric cardiologists, and from there, scientists aren’t sure. The syndrome is as new as COVID itself.
It generally appears about a month after infection, when the child is no longer suffering from an active COVID-19 infection. That also means doctors start seeing those patients, four or five at a time requiring constant lifesaving care, about a month after COVID-19 waves peak.
The syndrome is extremely rare, however, with early evidence indicating it happens to far fewer than 1% of COVID-19 patients. But it’s traumatic for those it does affect. Waddell said he has never seen a child with the condition who had been fully vaccinated.
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Beyond children so sick they need to be hospitalized, some suffer other forms of long COVID. Those symptoms can include daily “debilitating headaches, debilitating fatigue, often debilitating shortness of breath when walking up stairs, and frequent and constant dizziness,” Waddell said.
“This is hard to watch because it lasts for months, and some over a year,” he said. “It’s like a year of their high school life has been stolen from them.”
Waddell and other health care officials encouraged families to get their children the free vaccine and, when eligible, get the booster to protect against waning immunity.
New COVID cases drop in Iowa after staggering climb
Similar to hospitalizations, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported this week declined from last week, but it was still higher than any other previous week in the pandemic. The state reported an additional 34,949 cases over the past seven days, or 4,993 per day, bringing Iowa’s total for the pandemic to just under 700,000.
The total number of new COVID-19 cases in the past week was likely higher than what was reported, due to the prevalent use of at-home tests, whose results may not be reported to the health department, as well as asymptomatic individuals who may have the virus but opt not to get tested.
The statewide dip in cases comes as Polk County reported its highest seven-day positivity rate since the start of the pandemic, with more than one-in-three reported COVID-19 tests coming back positive. On average, 888 positive tests have been reported daily this month, Polk County Supervisor Angela Connolly said Tuesday.
The vast majority of COVID-19 positive patients in intensive care units in Polk County hospitals are unvaccinated, she said, a trend that matches state and national cases. The strain of those and non-ICU cases on hospital staffs are “challenging our hospitals’ ability to provide optimal care,” she said.
“That unvaccinated individual is taking away from your parent, your brother, your sister, and your friend who may have suffered from a heart attack or another life threatening health concern and needs medical care,” she said
Deaths from COVID-19 are up in Iowa
While hospitalizations and cases appeared to decline over the past week, new reported COVID-19 deaths — which often follow behind the trends of those other metrics — were up this week. IDPH reported 184 new COVID-19 deaths this week, occurring between late October and mid-January. That’s the most reported in a single week since February 2021.
Vaccination efforts appeared to stall this week, with the state reporting less than a tenth of a percentage point increase in the share of Iowans who are fully vaccinated. It’s not clear whether this reflects dwindling vaccination numbers or a delay in the state’s reporting process.
About half of Iowans who are fully vaccinated have also received an additional booster dose, which a CDC study found to be 90% effective against hospitalizations due to the omicron variant. That’s ahead of the national average: In the U.S. as a whole, the CDC says about 40% of fully vaccinated people have also received a booster.
Read more on COVID-19 in Iowa:
The latest COVID-19 numbers in Iowa
The latest data, as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, compared to the previous Wednesday.
- Confirmed cases: 699,859, an increase of 34,949
- Deaths: 8,501, an increase of 184
- Total tested: 2,391,006
- Total recovered: 554,415
- Statewide 14-day positivity rate: 25.2%
How many people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa?
- Hospitalizations: 929, down from 991 one week ago
- Patients in ICU: 165, down from 182
- Patients on ventilators: 77, down from 95
How many people in Polk and Dallas counties are vaccinated?
In Polk County, 313,942 residents (64%) are fully vaccinated, an increase of 314 (0.1 percentage point) since last week.
In Dallas County, 60,383 residents (65%) are fully vaccinated, an increase of 67 (0.1 percentage point).
The five counties in Iowa with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated as of Jan. 26 are Johnson (68%), Buena Vista (65%), Dallas (65%), Polk (64%) and Linn (64%) counties.
For a county-by-county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated weekly.
Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com, 515-284-8532, and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.
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