With Idaho’s reopening process set to begin, new coronavirus cases remain low
The day before Gov. Brad Little is set to speak publicly about Stage 1 of Idaho’s plan to reopen the economy, the latest statewide count of new coronavirus cases remained relatively low.
There were 21 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 announced by the state’s seven health districts Wednesday and no new deaths. The statewide number of confirmed cases stands at 1,833, with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reporting that 1,121 of those cases are “presumed recovered.” There also are 153 “probable cases” throughout the state, an increase of 11 cases from Tuesday.
Little’s press conference begins at 11 a.m. Thursday and will be aired live on Idaho Public Television.
The Wednesday data release also included encouraging hospital reports with three straight days without an emergency room admission for COVID-19-like symptoms, and a decline in ER visits with symptoms since a spike late last week.
[Related: How Idaho fares against governor’s criteria to reopen state]
Wednesday’s new cases were added in Ada (7 new, 631 total), Blaine (1 new, 488 total), Canyon (2 new, 234 total), Gooding (1 new, 9 total), Jerome (3 new, 41 total), Lincoln (2 new, 24 total), Nez Perce (1 new, 51 total), Payette (2 new, 14 total) and Twin Falls (2 new, 140 total) counties.
Health and Welfare reports that there have been 175 hospitalizations due to the coronavirus, 74 admissions to the ICU and 251 health care workers who have been infected. The hospital and health care numbers are based on cases with completed investigations into contacts, not the full number of positives.
More than 8,000 returned tests were added to the IDHW website on Tuesday, and the organization provided the Idaho Statesman with an explanation for the dramatic increase on Wednesday.
“We were receiving and reporting positive lab results from all sources as cases, but we were not displaying counts of negative results from Idaho hospitals on our webpage because Idaho hospitals were using either commercial laboratories or the state public health lab for testing their patients suspected of having COVID-19,” IDHW spokeswoman Niki Forbing-Orr wrote in an email.
Because IDHW was already reporting negative cases from the state lab and commercial labs, there was concern some negative results would be duplicated. Some hospitals are now conducting in-house coronavirus testing, and IDHW has since changed the process of reporting test results while avoiding duplication, Forbing-Orr wrote.
“Last week, these de-duplication processes were designed, tested, and quality-checked to ensure the most accurate count possible. While most of this new process is automated, because of errors in data entry at the laboratories or misspelling of names or incorrect dates of birth, there is an additional manual process,” Forbing-Orr continued. “The de-duplication process was implemented on Monday, April 27, and results published on our website on Tuesday, April 28.”
At the end of the day Wednesday, Health and Welfare reported that 28,693 tests had been completed statewide. About 6.4% have been positive for COVID-19.
Idaho has community spread in 17 counties: Ada, Bannock, Bingham, Blaine, Bonneville, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Jefferson, Jerome, Kootenai, Lemhi, Owyhee, Madison, Payette, Teton and Twin Falls.
Cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in 33 of Idaho’s 44 counties: Ada 631, Adams 3, Bannock 7, Bingham 4, Blaine 488, Bonner 4, Bonneville 17, Camas 1, Canyon 234, Caribou 1, Cassia 12, Custer 2, Elmore 27, Fremont 2, Gem 10, Gooding 9, Idaho 3, Jefferson 4, Jerome 41, Kootenai 61, Latah 5, Lemhi 1, Lincoln 24, Madison 6, Minidoka 8, Nez Perce 51, Owyhee 8, Payette 14, Power 2, Teton 8, Twin Falls 142, Valley 2 and Washington 1.
