Iowa started tracking the COVID-19 deaths of people who were diagnosed with the virus but not tested, a change that could add hundreds more deaths to the state's count. Iowa now accepts clinical diagnoses from doctors and not just positive virus tests when attributing a death to coronavirus. The change removed 433 deaths from the system but added 610, providing an initial net gain of 177 deaths and raising the state's toll to more than 2,900. Some of the removed cases could be added back in.

Stricter mask requirements went into effect in Iowa almost a month ago. But, are people in Sioux City following the rules? Siouxland Public Media’s talked to the top law enforcer for city for an update the impact of the disease on the police force. Sioux City’s Police Chief says so far no citations have been handed out since the Governor issued a partial mask mandate for public spaces. “More often than not we are finding when someone calls and lists a concern people are voluntarily complying. No

Iowa posted another 35 deaths from the coronavirus, continuing the high levels related to the pandemic according to the state coronavirus website . The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Iowa has risen over the past two weeks from 29 deaths per day on Nov. 22 to 45 deaths per day on Sunday, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The state’s total death count of more than 2,700 is the 28th highest in the country and the 20th highest per capita. State health officials

Hospitalizations reached an all-time high at Sioux City’s two facilities this week. There were a combined 108 patients at UnityPoint-Health St. Luke’s and MercyOne on December 1st. The number did dip to 88 today. The Chief Medical Director at MercyOne Siouxland, Dr. Larry Volz, talked to SPM’s Sheila Brummer about the surge, stress levels and what people can do to stop the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Larry Volz, the Chief Medical Officer at MercyOne Siouxland, says his facility has been busy with

This week, hospitalizations in Sioux City reached an all-time high at Sioux City’s two facilities. There were a combined 108 patients at UnityPoint-Health St. Luke’s and MercyOne on December 1, 2020. The number did dip to 88 today. The top doctor at MercyOne in Sioux City provided Siouxland Public Media with an update current conditions, social media rumors, staffing, schools, treatments, vaccines and more. Here's MercyOne Chief Medical Officer Dr. Larry Volz. Dr. Volz says virutal learning

Iowa continues to see record numbers of coronavirus cases. Today the state reports more than 25 hundred new cases of COVID-19 and 85 additional deaths. So far, Iowa has a total of 2,603 coronavirus deaths. There are 1,000 people hospitalized. The 14-day statewide positivity rate is 16.6%. The deaths of four Woodbury County residents attributed to COVID-19 were reported today, as well as 142 new cases. Siouxland District Health says those who died include a woman in the 41 to 60 age range, two

For the second straight day, Iowa reported a staggering number of COVID-19 deaths. Another 84 deaths were reported today, following 70 a day earlier. Before this week, the highest number of deaths reported in a single day was 47, which was reported on Nov. 25. While the new deaths were reported since 10 a.m. yesterday, only two were from December, according to the state's Coronavirus.Iowa.gov website. The bulk of the deaths were from November, with last month's death toll now at 801. At 10 a.m.

The state of Iowa will prioritize health care workers and the most vulnerable citizens as it distributes COVID-19 vaccinations. At a press conference today, Governor Kim Reynolds said she expects the first distributions to nursing home residents to start on Dec. 13th. There will be a shipment of 26,000 doses of a vaccine developed by Pfizer. Iowa will receive more doses over the next few weeks. And that includes a vaccine from Moderna, for a total of 172,000 doses by the end of December. The

This week on The Exchange, we have a wide-ranging conversation about the spread of COVID-19 in Iowa with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Epidemiologist Dr. Eli Perencavich. We begin our conversation with Siouxland District Health's Tyler Brock. Brock says despite the continuing numbers of additional cases of COVID-19 in Woodbury County, the numbers have decreased slightly in the last week. Enable Ginger Cannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection or reload the browser

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says November brought the biggest surge of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Reynolds says the first week of the month saw 28,000 new cases with a positivity rate of 32%. The second week 30,000 new cases and a positivity rate of about 29%. Those numbers were cut in half the week of Thanksgiving. Reynolds says even though no testing was done on Thanksgiving Day, the rest of the week experienced more testing than ever before. “We’re cautiously optimistic that the