OTTUMWA — On the final day of January, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported that another 250 Iowans have died from the coronavirus. It is the most deaths reported by the state in a 24-hour period since the pandemic began.
Deaths are reported on a delay, but 244 of the deaths first reported in state data on Sunday came from January. COVID-19 has now killed 4,901 Iowans, according to Sunday’s state data.
Two of the deaths reported Sunday were from December, two were from April and two were from May.
Local deaths were included, with six of them coming from Monroe County — where COVID-19 is to blame for 26 deaths since March.
There were two new deaths in Wapello County, raising the pandemic’s death toll to 100. Another two died in Appanoose, raising the county’s total to 43.
Jefferson County added one more death, for a total of 29, and Davis County added one for a total of 23.
All 12 of the deaths in the Courier’s coverage area had pre-existing conditions. The youngest was a 60-69-year-old in Wapello, and the others were above the age of 70.
Sunday’s new cases were on par with numbers from the past three Sundays. In Iowa, 757 new cases of the coronavirus were reported from 2,869 new individuals tested.
There were two new cases in Appanoose, two in Van Buren, two in Wapello and one in Monroe.
Positivity rates for the last 14 days trended down across the area, with Iowa’s rate dipping below 10%.
Hospitalizations were down to 358, while intensive care unit usage was up to 94.
There have been 58,183 Iowans to receive both doses of the vaccine, including 290 from Wapello County.
