The Iowa Department of Public Health urges residents to get vaccinated. | Unsplash/CDC
The Iowa Department of Public Health urges residents to get vaccinated. | Unsplash/CDC
The omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is leading to record-breaking numbers of cases across the U.S. and globally.
On Dec. 29, NPR reported that there were 480,000 cases reported in a single day, more than double the number of daily cases reported during the peak of the delta variant.
Omicron is less severe than the delta variant, but it is infecting a large number of vaccinated people, according to NPR. The Iowa Department of Public Health still urges residents to receive the vaccine.
"Vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death from COVID-19," the department wrote in a Dec. 29 Twitter post. "By getting vaccinated we also help preserve health care resources for other needs."
KCCI News reported that as of Dec. 27, 4,556,310 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the state of Iowa. As of Dec. 27, 81.6% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated. The state's health department reported that case numbers are dropping slightly with 9,506 positive tests over a weekly period which is down from 9,630 the previous week.
Iowa has the ninth highest seven-day death rate in the nation with 3.8 deaths per 100,000 people, according to date from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alerts Sign-up