Iowa Reports 19 Children Hospitalized With COVID, Only 1 is Vaccinated

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COVID hospitalizations in Iowa have reached a 2021 high for the third consecutive week, with 823 hospitalized cases in the state reported this week in the Iowa Department of Public Health's weekly COVID update, including 19 children under the age of 17.

There are 14 children under the age of 11, and five children between 12 to 17 hospitalized, and only one of those 19 cases is fully vaccinated.

In addition to the hospitalizations, public health officials reported 130 deaths this week, some of which date back to mid-October as it can take weeks to publicly confirm COVID as a cause of death, according to The Des Moines Register.

Iowa has just over 58 percent of its population fully vaccinated, the 25th highest rate in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the Food and Drug Administration has approved the COVID vaccine for more age groups, Iowa has been one of the slower states in the rollout, with just 11 percent of children ages 5 to 11 fully vaccinated, and 42 percent of children 12 to 15 fully vaccinated.

The newly reported deaths total to over 500 deaths since the beginning of November, about 12 COVID deaths per day.

People who are not fully vaccinated represent over 75 percent of hospitalized COVID patients in Iowa, and over 80 percent of cases currently in intensive care.

Just under 700,000 Iowans have received a booster shot as the CDC and others say booster shots of the vaccines can provide additional protection to variants like Delta and Omicron that may be more transmissible than others.

The 823 hospitalizations is up from 777 last week, an increase of nearly 50 hospitalizations in one week, and is just over half of the all-time high of 1,516 reported in November 2020.

COVID, Iowa, Children Vaccinated — Syringes wand vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered to front-line health care workers under an emergency use authorization at a drive up vaccination site from Renown Health in Reno, Nevada... Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The Iowa Department of Public Health also reported 20 people between age 20 and 29 are in the hospital with only one of those patients fully vaccinated.

Of the total hospitalized patients in Iowa, 173 are in intensive care.

A year after coronavirus vaccinations began in Iowa, the state still has 36 percent of the population unvaccinated, the 17th worst rate in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.