The surge in COVID-19 is continuing, according to the latest weekly update from the Iowa Department of Public Health. IDPH reported on Wednesday another 10,476 Iowans had tested positive for the virus during the most recent seven-day period. At the beginning of this reporting period, IDPH announced the State Hygienic Laboratory had detected the first […]
Mercy Medical Center
Posted inCommunity/News
Linn County doctors warn of upcoming COVID surge as hospitalizations rise
Linn County health officials are urging residents to get vaccinated and to practice mitigation measures to ease the burden on the local healthcare system, which has been seeing an increase in hospitalizations, as the Delta variant fuels an increase in COVID-19 cases. “COVID cases have increased in the preceding two weeks at a pace that […]
Posted inCommunity/News, COVID-19
Linn County will begin offering COVID-19 vaccine to residents 65 and older starting Tuesday
Linn County residents 65 and older will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine starting on Tuesday, but vaccine supply remains limited, Linn County Public Health officials announced Monday. MercyCare clinics, UnityPoint Health Clinics and various independent healthcare providers will begin contacting patients on Monday to provide an opportunity to schedule a vaccination appointment. Residents […]
Posted inCommunity/News, COVID-19
Linn County has only received an ‘extremely limited’ supply of COVID-19 vaccine, health officials say
Doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are arriving in Iowa and Linn County “very slowly,” and supply of the vaccine is “extremely limited,” according to Linn County Public Health. County public health and medical officials from the local hospitals urged residents during a LCPH news conference to remain patient as it might take the county longer […]
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Healthcare workers in Linn County begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine
Two Linn County hospitals received their first allotment of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Linn County Public Health (LCPH) announced in a news release. Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital each received 975 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to distribute to frontline healthcare workers as part of the first phase of vaccine distribution. […]
Posted inCommunity/News, COVID-19
Linn County health officials warn COVID-19 hospitalizations will reach an ‘unsustainable level’ if the surge continues
More than 700 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Linn County this week. This is the highest number of cases the county has seen reported in a single week since the pandemic was first confirmed in the county on March 21. Linn County has 6,142 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. on […]
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‘There is a false sense of security:’ Linn County officials urge mask-wearing to slow community spread
“Unfortunately, we are back to report some disheartening news about the virus spread in our community, particularly over the last 14 days,” Supervisor Ben Rogers said as he began Wednesday’s Linn County Public Health press conference. The last LCPH press conference was more than a month ago on May 20. Through the end of May […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Cedar Rapids doctor is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the low number of COVID-19 patients at Mercy; Test Iowa’s Linn County site continues to underperform
Dr. Tony Myers of Mercy Medical Center said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the lower number of COVID-19 patients in the Cedar Rapids hospital. During Wednesday’s Linn County Public Health press conference, Myers said there are four patients with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit and two of them are on ventilators. During the last […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Linn County begins to plan for what happens when neighboring counties reopen in May
Linn County isn’t one of the 77 counties where Gov. Reynolds is relaxing the state’s COVID-19 restrictions, but four counties it shares borders with are, so Linn officials are starting to consider what impact the changes the governor announced on Monday will have in their county. Starting on May 1, closed retail businesses and restaurants […]
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Two residents of a Marion nursing home have died, three employees test positive for COVID-19
Two residents of Linn Manor Care Center, a nursing home in Marion, have died from COVID-19 and three employees have tested positive for the virus. But according to the Iowa Department of Health, the facility is not experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19. IDPH defines an outbreak as three or more residents of a long-term care […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Mercy Cedar Rapids opens second respiratory clinic
Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids has opened a second clinic dedicated to caring for patients experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness, including COVID-19, the hospital announced on Monday. Mercy opened its first clinic in late March. Shortly after it was opened, the clinic moved in order to increase its patient capacity. It is currently located […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Linn County officials, preparing for a ‘patient surge,’ urge residents to stay home, wear a cloth mask if out
At the start of Linn County Public Health’s Monday press conference, Supervisor Stacey Walker shared how the county’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 have changed in only a week’s time. “When I last spoke to you, just under a week ago, there were 71 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Linn County,” Walker said. “Now, we have […]
