COVID-19 cases continue to climb

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - The COVID-19 pandemic is making its resurgence in eastern idaho. 

Over the weekend, there were more active cases of COVID-19 in Bannock County than at any point in the pandemic. 

And on Monday, the Southeastern Idaho Public Health District reported 1,011 active cases of COVID-19.  

"What we know is that about 98.9% of all the new cases in our state are due to the Delta variant," SIPH Director Maggie Mann said.

The variant is impacting local schools as well, with 97 total cases reported in the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District just last week. 

"The simplest thing to happen is for parents to have their kiddos wear masks when they go to school," Mann said. "That's a very effective, easy to implement step."

The Eastern Idaho Public Health District is also seeing a rise in cases, with more than 800 in the district as of Friday. 

"In the late spring and early summer, we were hopeful that the pandemic was coming to a conclusion," EIRMC spokeswoman Coleen Niemann said. "We were seeing single digit daily hospitalizations because of COVID. That has simply proven not to be true."

But in order for the situation to improve, local health districts are preaching the same message. Get the vaccine. 

"Health care workers are strained. They have been asked to serve our community for 18 months in unprecedented times. And this is where we can help them," Niemann said.

"The vaccine is still highly effective, and we can't overemphasize how effective it continues to be in preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death," Mann said.