Almost 4,500 Polk County residents were vaccinated last week. | Unsplash/Steven Cornfield
Almost 4,500 Polk County residents were vaccinated last week. | Unsplash/Steven Cornfield
Vaccination rates in Polk County have gone up as health officials warn of a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
We Are Iowa reported that Polk County officials announced they had administered 300 COVID-19 vaccinations during the week of Aug. 9. and that almost 4,500 Polk County residents were vaccinated last week.
"Proud to report an increase in vaccines by more than 4,400 residents in the past week! Thank you for helping keep the community safe," Polk County wrote in an Aug. 9 Facebook post. "Please get your vaccine and help us reach community immunity."
The announcement comes as the county is experiencing a 65% increase in new COVID-19 cases over last week while the entire state experienced a 170% increase due to the highly-contagious delta variant, We Are Iowa reported.
Iowa's hospitals held 355 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Aug.11, an increase of more than 66% over the number of people hospitalized a week ago, according to the Des Moines Register. Of those, 2% are 17 years old or younger.
Epidemiologist Meghan Schaeffer said with the current rate of increase of cases, Iowa appears to be following the path of Missouri and Arkansas, which were slammed with COVID-19 outbreaks last month, the Des Moines Register reported.
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