(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Public Health’s website shows the number Covid patients in Iowa hospitals has been increasing over the past three and a half weeks. In RMCC Region 4 (southwest & western Iowa), the data show nine patients are hospitalized with COVID, three are in an ICU, three people were admitted over the previous 24-hours, and one person was on a ventilator. Statewide, the largest group of current confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations, as of today (Thursday), were in the 50-to 59 age bracket.

Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa is an eye doctor who’s the former director of the state health department. She went on the floor of the U.S. House yesterday (Wednesday) to urge Iowans to get vaccinated. “For the last few months, I have traveled across my district administering vaccines to Iowans. It has been a pleasure to see my constituents and the entire country have a renewed sense of freedom and a return to normal,” Miller-Meeks said, but fully engaged living is threatened the Delta variant, which is causing increased hospitalizations and deaths, especially among those unvaccinated.”

Miller-Meeks says if you haven’t gotten a shot and have concerns, talk to your doctor. “It is miraculous to have three safe and effective vaccines for Covid-19 so rapidly,” Miller-Meeks says. “…Decades of research informed the development of these break-through vaccines and millions have been vaccinated with tremendously low risk.”

As she spoke, Miller-Meeks, who is a Republican, positioned a large photo showing her giving a Covid shot to the chairman of the Iowa G-O-P. Forty-seven percent of Iowans are fully vaccinated according to the Iowa Department of Public Health’s data.