Iowa COVID positive tests spike 37% after the holidays as omicron spreads through US

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The number of Iowans testing positive for coronavirus spiked over the weekend, but COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped, according to new data from the Iowa Department of Public Health.

A total of 17,773 positive tests were recorded in Iowa over the previous seven days, the department reported. That was up 37% from the 12,952 recorded in the seven days before Friday.

The totals could include some Iowans who tested positive more than once during a week. But they don't include the results of many rapid tests that people are using at home.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa dropped from 773 Friday to 768 on Monday. They have been relatively stable in recent weeks.

The rise in positive tests came amid reports that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading quickly throughout the nation. The new variant is much more transmissible than previous versions of the virus. And studies have suggested it causes less severe illness in many people. Still, health care leaders fear a wave of such infections could swamp hospitals, which have been crowded and short-staffed for months.

More: Patients discharged after COVID are so sick they're returning to the hospital

Central Iowa hospitals and clinics banded together to take out a full-page ad Sunday in the Des Moines Register, pleading with Iowans to get vaccinated. “Help. We are overwhelmed,” the ad said, noting that “the overwhelming majority” of patients getting seriously ill with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

Dr. Matthew Trump, a critical care physician at UnityPoint Health-Des Moines, said Monday the intensive-care units at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and Iowa Lutheran Hospital were full, with more than a third of the beds filled with COVID-19 patients. Almost all of them are unvaccinated, he said.

More: Man dies after a 15-day wait for a medical center bed: His survivors blame the COVID surge

“People are in some ways choosing death over survival. That’s about what it’s coming down to,” he said. “Sometimes, we have to wait for people to die before we can take more patients on.”

Trump said he hopes it’s true that the omicron variant of the coronavirus tends to cause less severe illness in many patients. But he said unvaccinated people should realize they remain very vulnerable.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in at all,” with that group of Iowans, he said.

The omicron variant was first discovered in South Africa in late November and soon was detected in California. It has ripped across the United States since then, pushing infections and hospitalizations up in many states.

It has not been as prevalent in Iowa as in many other states so far. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just 28% of coronavirus infections analyzed in the four-state region that includes Iowa were omicron during the week of Dec. 25, the latest available. That compares to 59% nationally and 88% of the region that includes New York State. Almost all the other cases analyzed nationally were caused by the Delta variant, which sparked earlier surges.

Less than 30% of Iowa adults are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but they make up nearly 84% of COVID-19 patients in the state's intensive care units, the health department reported Monday.

Public health experts have emphasized that booster shots offer important protection against serious illness from the omicron and all other variants of the coronavirus. About 810,000 Iowans have received booster doses. That's about a quarter of the state's population.

Iowa’s current COVID-19 hospitalization rates are less than half what they were during the peak in 2020, but health system leaders said they also have seen a wave of COVID-19 patients coming to outpatient clinics.

Trump, who also works for the Iowa Clinic, noted flu viruses also are circulating. The ICU’s where he works have seen a few flu patients in recent weeks, including at least one who had the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, he said.

According to the latest Iowa Department of Public Health report, three Iowans have died from the flu so far this winter, and cases climbed substantially in December. About 30% of Iowans had been vaccinated against the flu by Dec. 25, the report says.