(Radio Iowa) – A deadly hit and run is under investigation in eastern Iowa. Davenport police say a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle shortly after 7 on Monday night. It appears the unidentified man was dragged for more than a half mile. His body was found by a passerby in the street and the vehicle was long gone.

It happened in the city’s Five Points area and based on the information from police, the vehicle would’ve passed Genesis Medical Center — where the man was later pronounced dead. Police are asking for witnesses to come forward.

Iowa’s Coronavirus dashboard today (Tuesday, 10-a.m.), shows there are 954 new cases of COVID-19, for a total to-date of 306,233, and eight additional deaths, for a total of 4,332. The 14-day positivity rate is down from 12.9% Monday to 12% today. Hospitalizations are up from 483 yesterday to 490 today. There are 85 COVID patients in an ICU, 56 were admitted since 10-a.m. Monday, and 36 are on ventilators. In RMCC Region 4 (western/southwest Iowa hospitals), 37 are hospitalized with COVID symptoms, 12 are in an ICU, two people were admitted, and six are on a ventilator.

The IDPH says 1.426-million Iowans have been tested for the virus, and 268,882 have recovered. Officials say underlying causes account for 3,959 deaths, while COVID was a contributing factor in 373 deaths. Lont-Term Care (LTC) facility deaths amount of 1,777. Long-Term Care facility data show outbreaks are down from 76 Monday to 72, today. The number of patients and staff who have tested positive is down from 1,938 Monday to 1,825 today.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County; The # of new cases since yesterday {+} – if any; and the total number of deaths in each county to date:

• Cass, 1,128 cases; {+2}; 41 deaths
• Adair, 688; {+2}; 20
• Adams, 295; {+0}; 3
• Audubon, 416; {+4}; 8
• Guthrie, 1,030 {+3}; 24
• Harrison County, 1,548; {+1}; 62
• Madison County, 1,199; {+11}; 9
• Mills County, 1,362; {+2}; 16
• Montgomery, 848; {+8}; 22
• Pottawattamie County, 8,959; {+17}; 112
• Shelby County, 1020; {+7}; 26
• Union County,  1,082; {+1}; 22

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University mathematician is developing a way to track the spread of COVID-19 that factors in people’s social interactions more realistically. I-S-U researcher Claus Kadelka says he noticed early in the pandemic that many models assume people engage in random social interactions. Kadelka says most people practice homophily, or the tendency to associate with people who share the same opinions or beliefs. Kadleka says, “You and I, we have our friends, we have our family, we have our co-workers that we’re much more likely to interact with than a random stranger in our community.”

Based on his model, he says it may make sense to vaccinate younger, lower-risk people first, because they have substantially more social contacts and tend to spread the virus far more than older high-risk people. According to his model, Kadelka says there will likely be clusters of people who won’t want to get the vaccine, meaning, government officials may need to aim to vaccinate more than 60- to 70-percent of the population. “It shows you that these numbers that are being floated around by a lot of researchers, essentially that just, base things on simple models, they’re probably an underestimate,” he says.

He says policymakers should focus on getting more data on people’s social interactions during the pandemic before making key decisions.

(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)