Des Moines Sun

A self-proclaimed social-media-based Iowa COVID-19 data tracker has released her latest graphs based recently released hospitalization data that news reports say is a scale-back about those hospitalizations.

Sara Anne Willette, who runs the iowacovid19tracker on Twitch.tv, released her most recent graphs in a Facebook post.

'Iowa COVID-19 Tracker' Sara Anne Willette in a March 2019 selfie | iowacovid19tracker.org/

In her detailed post, Willette included her update, as of Monday, Nov. 29, reporting that a total of 522,858 have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 567,074 tests and that 7,432 have died from the disease. The post noted that the National Center for Health Statistics' latest data was released on Saturday, Nov. 27, and that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not release reports on Sundays or Mondays.

The Facebook post included many links as sources for Willette's information and where anyone can get more information.

She recommended her website, iowacovid19tracker.org, for anyone who wants "to take a deeper dive into the aggregated data."

"Each county has its own webpage with graphs for active infections, weekly deaths/positives/tests, and cumulative deaths/positives/tests," Willette said in her Facebook post. "I update county-level data weekly on Wednesday and state-level data everyday."

Willette's Facebook post follows up on a promise she made Friday, Nov. 26, when the state released its latest hospitalization data.

"Now that the hospitalization data by facility is completed, I will get it added to the hospitalizations page and finish update tasks," Willette said in a Twitter post that day.

Willette's IAC Tracker Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit funded at least in part by donations to her Patreon account, in which she reports she tracks Iowa COVID-19 data "as humanly possible on the county/state level." The state hasn't made it easy.

"The Iowa Department of Public Health has been removing positives, deaths, recoveries and tests with little-to-no information give to the ACTUAL PUBLIC since the pandemic began on 3/7/2020," Willette says on her Patreon account. "Their COVID-19 in Iowa website is cumbersome and intended to confuse Iowans as to the current state of things. I share all changes daily on Twitter, as well as maintain multiple public spreadsheets that are freely available."

Willette is doing this work "to have as many informed Iowans as possible so we all can stay safe and keep each other safe," she said. "I have a dog in this race, as I have Common Variable Immune Deficiency and Reactive Airway Disease. I will continue being locked in my house (with my husband and our son) until the pandemic is over via herd immunity. I don't want to die and I don't want anyone else to die."

She also advices people to "Please social distance. Please wear a mask. Please stay home as much as possible."

Willette's efforts became even more difficult last week when the Iowa Department of Public Health announced it would no longer require hospitals report COVID-19 hospitalizations information, according to news reports.

The state dropped the requirement to reduce the burden on hospitals, a department spokesperson said in a news story published in The Gazette in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Nov. 26.

The dropped requirement went into effect on Thursday, Nov. 25.

The day prior, the health department reported the 14-day positivity rate in Iowa stood at 10.4%, according to a Des Moines Register news story.