Iowa hit another somber milestone in coronavirus deaths on Jan. 6, 2021. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

UPDATE Jan 8, 2021: The hopeful news of no recent deaths among nursing home residents apparently was related to the state’s record keeping. Iowa reported an additional 538 deaths of residents of long-term care facilities on Jan. 8, for a total of 1,677, after remaining steady at 1,139 since Dec. 30. Statewide, Iowa reported a total of 4,124 deaths as of 10 a.m. Jan. 8, an increase of 59 deaths from the previous day. Due to its tracking method, not all of those deaths occurred in a 24-hour period.

In a span of just over eight months, more than 3,000 Iowans died of coronavirus, while it has taken less than one month for that number to now surpass 4,000.

Iowa reported 4,060 deaths from COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Jan. 6, 2021, an increase of 61 from the previous day, and up more than 1,000 from Dec. 9, 2020, when the state reported a total of 3,021 coronavirus deaths. Because of Iowa’s reporting method, all of the deaths reported Jan. 6 did not happen on one day.

Related: COVID-19 deaths spike in Iowa

The state is now breaking down the statistics to note that COVID-19 was an underlying cause in 3,722 of those deaths and a contributing factor in 338. Of those Iowans who have died of coronavirus, 3,725 were reported to have a pre-existing condition, while 335 had none.

Iowa began offering COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers on Dec. 14, but little information has been offered by Gov. Kim Reynolds on any progress in vaccination efforts in the state.

More: First Iowan receives COVID-19 vaccination

After seeing several days of decreasing numbers of hospitalizations and admissions, those numbers now are on the rise.

As of Jan. 6, Iowa reported 289,464 confirmed COVID-19 cases, up 2,785 from the previous day. The same morning, the state reported 604 Iowans hospitalized, up from 582 on Jan. 5, and 125 patients admitted in the past 24 hours, up from 69 hospital admissions the previous day. Of those, 116 patients were in intensive care units.

Monroe County reported the highest 14-day average of confirmed cases, at 32.4 percent, while Iowa County reported the lowest rate, at 7 percent. More than half of the state’s counties — 54 of 99 — reported a 15 percent or greater positivity average, compared to 32 counties one week ago on Dec. 30.

On a more hopeful note, the number of nursing home outbreaks dropped to 91 on Jan. 6. That number was at 100 on Jan. 5 and 111 one week ago on Dec. 30.

Since Dec. 31, Iowa has reported no deaths related to long-term care facilities, which is of note, as the state had reported more than half of coronavirus deaths were tied to those outbreaks in previous months.

The number of deaths related to nursing home outbreaks has stood at 1,139 since Dec. 30.

More: Take a look back at Iowa in 2020.