(Radio Iowa) – The pace of vaccinations appears to be trending up slightly in Iowa as the number of patients hospitalized in Iowa for treatment of Covid grows. In the past 40 days, the number of Covid patients in Iowa hospitals has grown from 46 to more than 200 — a 77 percent increase.

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s weekly report shows the state averaged about 500 new cases of Covid in each of the past seven days. That’s about seven percent higher than daily case counts a year ago. The state website shows just over 47 percent of Iowans are fully vaccinated — a three-tenths of a percent increase from the previous week.