COVID-19 hospitalizations reach new high in Iowa, record 31 deaths reported Wednesday

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - The Iowa Department of Public Health reported a record high 31 more COVID-19 related deaths and an additional 1,276 COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours.

As of 10:30 a.m. on October 21, the state’s data is showing a total of 108,297 COVID-19 cases and 1,579 COVID-19 related deaths since the pandemic began.

Wednesday also marked another new high in COVID-19 hospitalizations with 534 patients reported to be hospitalized with the virus. Of those, 90 patients were admitted in the last 24 hours. 134 patients are in the ICU and 49 are on ventilators.

A total of 5,930 tests were reported to have been conducted over the last 24 hours, making the total number of tests conducted 911,681 since the pandemic began. The positivity rate over the last 24-hour reporting period was 21.5 percent.

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