Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:00 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Coronavirus-related hospitalizations and admissions ticked higher in Iowa Monday after several days of decline as the state will end the year with over 3,700 dead from the virus. The state reported no additional deaths in the previous 24 hours as of Monday morning. That leaves Iowa’s death toll at 3,745 but a lag in death reports is likely to drive the official year-end total higher. State Public Health data indicates the number of deaths in October was 21% higher than the average monthly deaths for October over the past four years. State data shows 540 new coronavirus cases were reported in the previous 24 hours.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — One of the Tyson Foods managers fired for betting on how many workers would contract COVID-19 at their Iowa pork plant says the office pool was spontaneous and intended to boost morale. Don Merschbrock, a former night manager at the plant in Waterloo, Iowa, said he was speaking out in an attempt to show that the seven fired supervisors are “not the evil people” that Tyson has portrayed. Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson announced the terminations of the Waterloo managers on Dec. 16, weeks after the betting allegation surfaced in wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of four workers who died of COVID-19.

WALCOTT, Iowa (AP) — Two people are dead and another person is injured after a wrong-way, head-on crash on an eastern Iowa interstate highway. The accident happened late Saturday on Interstate 80 near Walcott. The Iowa State Patrol said a 1999 Chrysler Concorde was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes when it struck an Infiniti QX60. The driver of the Concorde, 30-year-old Amanda Lin Countryman of Compton, Illinois, was killed, along with 28-year-old Connor Reisenbigler of New York City. The driver of the Infiniti, 27-year-old John Martin Keane of the Bronx, New York, was hospitalized but his condition was not released. The patrol says the accident remains under investigation.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — It has been nearly 10 months since Neil Bennett of Iowa City became Iowa’s first person hospitalized for the coronavirus. The 74-year-old is still dealing with the impact. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that Bennett was admitted to a hospital in early March. Though he long ago returned home, Bennett still uses a cane and walker and undergoes physical therapy and pulmonary rehabilitation to build up strength in his body and lungs. Bennett says he sometimes becomes impatient with his progress and craves a sense of normalcy. He urges people to wear a mask, maintain social distancing and wash their hands frequently.