IOWA - COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa continue to drop from their late November peak.
Total patients hospitalized entering the first full week of January (571) is just over a third of the high mark of more than 1,500 roughly a month and a half earlier.
The number of patients in ICU and on ventilators has also sharply declined since peaking in November.
About two-thirds of people who've been hospitalized in the state have been 60-years-old or older.
Iowa is one of 19 states and territories where new COVID-19 cases are higher but going down, according to data compiled by the New York Times. In addition, outbreaks at long term care centers in Iowa have declined since November.
Still, almost half of Iowa's counties (45 out of 99) have a high level of new cases. Those counties have a positivity rate above 15 percent over a 14-day average, a threshold at which school districts can conduct online only classes. In late November, all but a handful of Iowa counties were in the that category.