The COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread across Iowa over the past week, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa rose again, to 256, the most hospitalizations in a weekly update since February, when last winter's surge was winding down. Twenty-threeof those patients required intensive care, the same number as last week.
New reported COVID-19 cases also increased this week, but not to the extent they did the previous week. The Des Moines Register reports that there were 5,301 new cases reported over the past seven days, an average of about 757 per day. That's up slightly from the 741 per day reported over the week prior.
The Sioux City Planned Parenthood is seeing an increase in patients from states where abortion has been banned. Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood North Central States Sarah Traxler says as more states pass abortion restrictions, the clinic is poised to become a critical point of access for Midwestern states.
But, the clinic is being careful in how it handles abortions for patients from states with bans. Those patients now have to complete their medication abortion on-site. Rather than administering the medication orally, the clinic will administer it vaginally – which doesn’t require patients to wait 24 hours for a second dose of the medication.
The clinic is also now open two days a week, to accommodate Iowa's new law requiring patients seeking an abortion to make two appointments, at least 24 hours apart.
Iowa voters statewide say they prefer Republican candidates to Democrats in races for the U.S. House of Representatives, including in three of the state's four congressional districts, a new Iowa Poll finds.
A majority of likely Iowa voters, 51%, say they want a Republican candidate to represent them in the U.S. House; 41% say they want a Democrat.
The exception is the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Polk and Dallas counties and areas to the south and west, where voters prefer a Democrat to a Republican by a slim margin. In that race, two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, a West Des Moines Democrat, is squared off against Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn of Bondurant in a race that national analysts have pegged as one of the most competitive in the country.
