Dipping downward

COVID-19 positivity rates continued a downward trend both locally and statewide over the past week.

As of Wednesday morning, O'Brien County's seven-day positivity rate was 3 percent while Clay County's was 2 percent. Local 14-day positivity rates weren't available on the state's COVID-19 data website. Last week, O'Brien County's 14-day positivity rate was 5.9 percent while Clay County's was 6.9 percent.

Statewide, the 14-day positivity rate was down from 7.5 percent to 4.1 percent.

Coronavirus-related deaths were unchanged in Clay County at 25 and in O'Brien County at 58. There have been 5,400 COVID-19 deaths statewide, up from 5,263 last week.

Confirmed infections since the pandemic began tallied 1,923 in O'Brien County, 1,930 in Clay County and 361,065 statewide. Recoveries in that same order were 1,668, 1,723 and 311,674.

As of Sunday, there were 222 coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Iowa, down from 240 the previous week. One hospitalization was reported in Clay County while O'Brien County had zero.

O'Brien County had initiated 1,227 vaccine series as of Monday and completed 702. In Clay County, those numbers were 1,833 and 1,778, respectively. Statewide, 299,048 people had received their first dose while 148,260 had received their second.