Idaho remains in coronavirus ‘red zone’ with 7th 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 7th 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 2nd 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 County, Madison County and Bonneville County had the highest number of new cases over the last 3 weeks. These counties represent 37.3% of new cases in Idaho.
80% of all counties in Idaho have moderate or high levels of community transmission (yellow, orange, or red zones), with 66% having high levels of community transmission (red zone).
Test positivity increased most significantly in Lincoln, Jerome, Minidoka, Madison, Twin Falls, Lemhi and Clearwater counties.
Test positivity among 18-24 year-olds dropped to 41% in Latah County, 15% in Bannock County, and 12% in Ada County; but rose to 39% in Madison County, where BYU-Idaho is located.
Testing remains limited among 65+ year-olds, the age group at highest risk, in which test positivity in this age group now exceeds 10% in 27 counties.
Kootenai County has 80% inpatient bed utilization and 70% ICU utilization.
During the week of Oct 5 - Oct 11, 14% of nursing homes had at least one new resident COVID-19 case, 24% had at least one new staff COVID-19 case, and 1% had at least one new resident COVID-19 death. There is evidence of ongoing transmission in nursing homes in Burley and multiple cases among staff and residents in facilities in Soda Springs and Twin Falls.
Idaho had 258 new cases per 100,000 population in the last week, compared to a national average of 117 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 10 - Oct 16, on average, 25 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 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.
