White House Task Force report says Idaho remains in coronavirus ‘red zone’ with 8th highest rate in country
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - The latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report obtained by ABC News shows Idaho is still in the red zone for new confirmed cases.
That means 101 or more new cases per 100,000 population last week, with the 8th highest rate in the country.
Idaho is also in the red zone for test positivity, indicating a rate at or above 10.1%, with the 3rd highest rate in the country.
The Gem State has seen an increase in new cases and an increase in test positivity over the last week.
Ada, Bonneville and Canyon had the highest number of new cases over the last 3 weeks. These counties represent 35.9% of new cases in Idaho.
Rapidly increasing cases and test positivity among 12-17 year-olds in many counties (Bannock, Bingham, Blaine, Custer, Elmore, Franklin, Gem, Gooding, Twin Falls and Washington counties) suggests outbreaks in those counties may be related to school openings.
Test positivity in 18-24 year-olds is 80.7% in Latah County (University of Idaho), 22.9% in Madison County (Brigham Young University-Idaho), 15.6% in Ada County (Boise State University) and 10.3% in Bannock County (Idaho State University).
There are apparent outbreaks in nursing homes in Emmet and Burley.
68% of all counties in Idaho have moderate or high levels of community transmission (yellow, orange, or red zones), with 52% having high levels of community transmission (red zone).
During the week of Sep 21 - Sep 27, 6% of nursing homes had at least one new resident COVID-19 case, 29% had at least one new staff COVID-19 case, and 1% had at least one new resident COVID-19 death.
Idaho had 195 new cases per 100,000 population in the last week, compared to a national average of 90 per 100,000.
Current staff deployed from the federal government as assets to support the state response are: 9 to support operations activities from FEMA and 1 to support epidemiology activities from CDC.
Between Sep 26 - Oct 2, on average, 20 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 5 patients with suspected COVID-19 were reported as newly admitted each day to hospitals in Idaho. An average of greater than 95% of hospitals reported either new confirmed or new suspected COVID patients each day during this period.
