White House Task Force report says Idaho remains in coronavirus ‘red zone’ with 6th 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 6th highest rate in the country. That is up from last week when Idaho was the 8th highest 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 35.6% of new cases in Idaho.
68% of all counties in Idaho have moderate or high levels of community transmission (yellow, orange, or red zones), with 55% having high levels of community transmission (red zone).
Test positivity now increasing most rapidly and broadly among 25-64 year-olds and exceeds 15% in 16 counties, suggesting that transmission is expanding to older age groups.
Test positivity among 18-24 year-olds remains over 80% in Latah County (University of Idaho), almost 29% in Madison County (BYUIdaho), 14% in Ada County (Boise State University), and 18% in Bannock County (Idaho State University).
Testing is limited among 65+ year-olds; test positivity in this age group exceeds 10% in 17 counties, including Twin Falls, Bonneville and Kootenai.
Kootenai County has 78% inpatient bed utilization and 91% ICU utilization.
There is evidence of ongoing transmission in nursing homes in Emmet and Burley, and multiple cases among staff and residents in facilities in Boise, Nampa, and Rexburg.
During the week of Sep 28 - Oct 4, 9% of nursing homes had at least one new resident COVID-19 case, 22% had at least one new staff COVID-19 case, and 1% had at least one new resident COVID-19 death.
Idaho had 215 new cases per 100,000 population in the last week, compared to a national average of 100 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 2 to support epidemiology activities from CDC.
Between Oct 3 - Oct 9, on average, 22 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 7 patients with suspected COVID-19 were reported as newly admitted each day to hospitals in Idaho. An average of 93% of hospitals reported either new confirmed or new suspected COVID patients each day during this period; therefore, this may be an underestimate of the actual total number of COVID-related hospitalizations. Underreporting may lead to a lower allocation of critical supplies.
