Coronavirus claims two more Idaho lives; Blaine County extends restrictions
While it was the slowest day for new coronavirus cases since March 22, two more Idahoans were added to the COVID-19 death toll on Saturday.
One person in Payette County and another in Twin Falls County have died, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. There have been 27 deaths confirmed statewide due to the coronavirus. Case-specific details for the two latest deaths were not provided by the individual health districts or IDHW.
The number of cumulative ICU admissions has increased from 24 on Tuesday to 38 through Saturday.
Only the Panhandle Health District and Eastern Idaho Public Health posted updates on their websites Saturday. IDHW reported an additional eight cases across Ada (2 new, 517 total), Blaine (2 new, 454 total), Canyon (1 new, 146 total), Jerome (1 new, 29 total) and Twin Falls (2 new, 75 total) counties. EIPH reported one new case in Bonneville County (13 total).
Idaho now has a total of 1,408 confirmed cases of coronavirus with a mortality rate of 1.92%.
Cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in 32 of Idaho’s 44 counties: Ada 517, Adams 1, Bannock 5, Bingham 2, Blaine 454, Bonner 4, Bonneville 13, Camas 1, Canyon 146, Caribou 1, Cassia 7, Custer 2, Elmore 16, Fremont 2, Gem 9, Gooding 5, Idaho 3, Jefferson 4, Jerome 29, Kootenai 44, Latah 3, Lincoln 14, Madison 5, Minidoka 4, Nez Perce 19, Owyhee 4, Payette 8, Power 2, Teton 6, Twin Falls 75, Valley 2 and Washington 1.
Idaho has confirmed community spread in 13 counties: Ada, Bingham, Blaine, Bonneville, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Jefferson, Kootenai, Madison, Payette, Teton and Twin Falls.
Health and Welfare reported 14,308 tests had been completed statewide at the end of the day Saturday. About 9.8% have been positive for COVID-19. There have been 131 hospitalizations, 38 admissions to the ICU and 153 health care workers who have been infected, according to IDHW. The hospital and health care numbers are based on cases with completed investigations into contacts, not the full number of positives.
Blaine County extends restrictions
A special meeting held by the Blaine County Commission on Saturday morning ended in a 2-1 vote to extend the county’s restrictive order by one week. The order will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. Sunday, April 19.
On March 27, hard-hit Blaine County added additional restrictions to Gov. Brad Little’s stay-home order.
Little’s order allows construction and landscaping work to continue amid the 21-day shutdown due to the coronavirus, but Blaine has deemed commercial and residential construction, as well as routine maintenance and landscaping, to be nonessential.
Blaine’s order also states that hotels and short-term rentals in the county may go only to health care providers or other people deemed essential amid the outbreak, and not to travelers from outside of the county.
Travel into and out of Blaine County, per the ordinance, must be for essential needs and essential business, or government purposes.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy our case numbers might differ from the state's
The Idaho Statesman is tabulating confirmed coronavirus cases from Idaho’s seven health districts as they’re reported. The health districts report cases on their own schedules — some issue press releases, some simply update totals on their websites. And the reports happen at various times throughout the day.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, meanwhile, updates its statewide numbers once a day at about 5 p.m. Its numbers only include the cases the health districts have reported directly to the department. In some cases, health districts have reported cases publicly but not to the department by the daily deadline.
We break out each day’s new cases by county and provide details on each case when available here.
