Thread by @SenatorRobHogg

December 5, 2020

Iowans, we urgently need to stop the spread of coronavirus. Today, Iowa reports:

62 more deaths (2,665 total)
305 deaths reported in last week (Nov. 28-Dec. 5) (highest yet)
960 hospitalized
204 in intensive care
2,369 new cases

#IowaMourns
#StoptheSpread

The 62 coronavirus deaths reported today in Iowa were in the following counties:

Adair
Appanoose
Black Hawk (2)
Butler (3)
Carroll
Cass
Chickasaw
Clay
Clinton
Davis (2)
Delaware
Dubuque
Floyd (2)
Hamilton
Henry
Humboldt
Ida
Jefferson
Johnson
Jones
Keokuk
Kossuth
Lee (2)

. . .

Coronavirus deaths reported today in Iowa by county (cont'd):

Linn
Lyon
Marion (2)
Marshall
Mills
Mitchell
Monona
Osceola
Palo Alto
Plymouth
Polk (5)
Pottawattamie (2)
Sac
Scott (3)
Shelby (3)
Story
Union
Warren (2)
Winneshiek
Woodbury (3)

All across Iowa

#IowaMourns

The 62 coronavirus deaths reported today push the total for the last 7-day period to 305.

That's the highest 7-day report yet.

At 43.6 deaths per day, coronavirus is now killing more than twice as many Iowans as heart disease (19.7 per day) and cancer (17.7 per day).

If you've been skeptical about coronavirus, I understand. It's beyond all of our personal experiences. We haven't had a public health emergency this bad since the flu of 1918-19.

It's okay to be a Doubting Thomas, but when you see it, like we're now seeing it, we need to act.

There are now 20 days to Christmas.

Iowans, please:

Stay home if possible.
Mask up when out.
Keep your distance.
Avoid groups small or large.
Wash hands.
Get sleep.
Eat healthy.
Take Vitamin D.
Speak up for more action by Gov. Reynolds and legislative leaders.

#StoptheSpread

What can Gov. Reynolds do:

More comprehensive mask mandate
Better contact tracing
More rapid testing, esp. health & safety workers
Require isolation for (& pay) infected
Virtual schools
Close (& pay) non-essential businesses for 2-3 weeks

We need legislators' support.

If we Iowans do the things I listed above in this thread, and if Gov. Reynolds does more (hopefully with our support and the support of legislative leaders), we can get the spread of coronavirus under control, save lives, and have a safer holiday season.

#StoptheSpread

On a day with 62 more deaths from coronavirus reported, Iowa hospitalizations dropped by 40 to 960, including 204 in intensive care (down 5) and 117 on ventilators (down 11).

There were 131 new admissions to Iowa hospitals for coronavirus in the last 24-hour period.

Iowa reported there were 2 more long-term care outbreaks for a total of 137.

Sadly, Iowa reported there were 18 more deaths among long-term care residents.

Please help reduce community spread to help protect long-term care residents.

#IowaMourns

Between 10 am Dec. 4 and 10 am Dec. 5, Iowa reported 2,369 new cases of coronavirus (up from 239,693 to 242,062).

Subtracting deaths (2,665) and "recoveries" (157,028), there are now 82,369 - one out of every 39 Iowans!

As recently as October 7, there were 19,691 active cases.

Here's another way to think about 2,369 new cases.

So far, coronavirus has killed 2,665 Iowans while 157,028 have "recovered." That's a ratio of 1.67 deaths for every 100 cases where an outcome has been determined.

Applying that rate to the 2,369 new cases, 39 would die.

Of the 2,369 new cases reported, there were 295 new cases among Iowa kids under age 18.

That total is now 24,255.

That's up from 11,305 on Halloween and 4,538 on September 1.

Remember, it doesn't just endanger the kids - think about their families, staff, and the public, too.

The 2,369 new cases were confirmed on 6,421 new reported tests (from 1,237,170 to 1,243,591) for a rate of 36.9%.

We know, however, that the state is not reporting all tests in that number . . .

As I said yesterday, the state changed its "positive case analysis" and is no longer providing a daily report on new cases and new tests (which was always under-reporting new cases).

But its revisions may give the public a way to calculate a daily positive rate.

Here's the method I'm going to try.

Today, at 10 am, Iowa reported total tests of 2,561,174 and total positives of 261,732 - both much higher than the spreadsheets.

My plan is to see how those change by 10 am tomorrow for a statewide daily rate showing coronavirus

Unfortunately, there is not a convenient way to do that method for each county - at least not that I have figured out yet. If you have suggestions, let me know by reply here, or by sending an email to me at rob [dot] hogg [at] legis [dot] iowa [dot] gov.

I need to take a break to attend to some other matters, but I hope to be back later this afternoon or evening with the county-by-county data from the spreadsheets (comparing Dec. 4 at 10 am with Dec. 5 at 10 am). In the meantime, please mourn the dead and help stop the spread!

Here is a separate thread with the county-by-county coronavirus data for Dec. 4 at 10 am to Dec. 5 at 10 am:

https://twitter.com/SenatorRobHogg/status/1335391658733604864

Iowans, please help stop the spread of this deadly infectious disease that has already killed 2,665 Iowans!