Idaho remains in coronavirus ‘red zone’ with 5th highest rate in country
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - The latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report obtained by ABC News shows Idaho remains in the red zone for new confirmed cases.
That means 101 or more new cases per 100,000 population last week, with the 5th highest rate in the country. That's up from 7th last week.
Idaho is also in the red zone for test positivity, indicating a rate at or above 10.1%, with the 2nd highest rate in the country.
The Gem State has seen an increase in new cases and stability in test positivity over the last week.
Ada County, Madison County and Bonneville County had the highest number of new cases over the last 3 weeks. These counties represent 36.2% of new cases in Idaho; Madison County has over 1,000 cases per 100,000
population and test positivity exceeding 30%.
82% of all counties in Idaho have moderate or high levels of community transmission (yellow, orange, or red zones), with 70% having high levels of community transmission (red zone).
Test positivity exceeds 10% in 35 counties and, among counties with at least 500 tests in the past week, positivity increased most significantly in Kootenai, Nez Perce, Canyon, Bonneville and Bingham counties.
Testing among 65+ year-olds has increased substantially and test positivity in this age groups remains above 10% in at least 24 counties.
Kootenai County has 77% inpatient bed utilization and 83% ICU utilization; Bannock County reported 69% and 86%, respectively.
During the week of Oct 12 - Oct 18, 6% of nursing homes had at least one new resident COVID-19 case, 30% had at least one new staff COVID-19 case, and 1% had at least one new resident COVID-19 death; facilities in Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston, and Pocatello saw multiple cases among staff/residents.
Idaho had 334 new cases per 100,000 population in the last week, compared to a national average of 133 per 100,000.
Current staff deployed from the federal government as assets to support the state response are: 9 to support operations activitiesfrom FE MA and 2 to support epidemiology activities from CDC.
Between Oct 17 - Oct 23, on average, 35 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 8 patients with suspected COVID-19 were reported as newly admitted each day to hospitals in Idaho. An average of 94% of hospitals reported either new confirmed or new suspected COVID patients each day during this period.
