With coronavirus cases climbing, Little keeps Idaho in Stage 4 of reopening plan
Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Thursday that the state must stay in Stage 4 of its reopening plan as some counties see big spikes in new coronavirus cases and the state’s count climbs.
Little announced that the state did not meet the metrics needed to move out of the final stage of the governor’s four-stage reopening plan, which was scheduled to end Friday. Idaho will be in Stage 4 for at least another two weeks, he said.
He said during a news conference that Idaho will transition into a regional approach to the virus, which became clear earlier this week when Central District Health moved Ada County back to Stage 3.
“I’m confident that by working together, Idaho will rebound more swiftly and robustly than most parts of the country and the world,” Little said.
Statewide, more than 4,100 people have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic reached Idaho, and 90 people have died. The percentage of positive tests during the 14-day evaluation period during Stage 4 trended upward and was 5.12% — above the state’s 5% threshold.
Another metric involves health care workers. The Idaho Rebounds plan requires that Idaho have fewer than two health professionals per day reported as COVID-19 positive over a 14-day evaluation period, or that there’s a downward trend.
The state’s gating criteria document showed 59 health care workers (4.2 per day) reported as COVID-19 positive during the 14-day period, and showed an upward trend in those cases. The state barely cleared this hurdle during Stage 3, when the average was exactly two per day and there was a slight downward trend.
State epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn acknowledged that the increase was concerning.
Hahn explained that hospitals do have enough personal protective equipment and hospital beds available. But the health care workers seem to be getting infected in the community, not on the job, especially those who live in Ada and Canyon counties, she said.
On Monday, Central District Health announced that Ada County was being directed to take a step backward, moving into the original Stage 3 of the Idaho Rebounds plan. The health district closed bars, nightclubs and large venues, and banned gatherings of more than 50 people, after seeing a major spike in coronavirus cases.
Ada County will remain in Stage 3 for now, as Little noted that health districts and mayors have the clear authority to impose stricter measures.
The governor said he trusts mayors and local health officials to do the right thing. However, Little said that if a city decides to do something like aiming for herd immunity, his office could intervene in consultation with a local health district.
“I don’t want to do that,” Little said. “But I will if I have to.”
Many of the coronavirus-related restrictions were eased by Stage 4, but it still requires physical distancing for large events and recommends against events that draw people from other communities with “substantial community spread.”
Across the country, roughly 2.3 million people in America have been infected with the virus and more than 121,000 people had died as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. States throughout the South and West have seen a major increase in infections the past two weeks, causing some — including Utah, Oregon and Nevada — to slow down reopening plans.
Little doesn’t want that to happen again in Idaho.
“We want our children back in school at the end of summer, so please do not let your guard down,” the governor said.
New outbreaks
Ada and Canyon counties have seen spikes in their caseload and have watched total numbers balloon. The outbreaks are largely led by young people, and health officials have repeatedly urged residents to continue social distancing, wear a mask when in public and remain diligently hygienic.
Through Wednesday, Idaho’s 14-day case average climbed from 55.1 new cases per day on June 19 to 99.5 — an 81% percent increase in just five days.
Authorities in the Southwest Health District, which includes Canyon County, have said they do not have plans to implement additional restrictions, despite their recent increases. As of Wednesday, Canyon County had 489 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the district, and had seen six deaths related to COVID-19. The county set a record Wednesday with 54 new reported cases in one day.
Public health districts have the authority to issue orders regarding their district or a specific county should there be a risk to public health.
Little said moving to a regional standard, rather than statewide orders, was always part of the plan. Part of that is to be fair to counties that are not seeing outbreaks, he said.
“And as long as we keep our criteria down, we’ll be able to manage it on a regional basis, but there’s nothing perfectly fair about this whole system,” Little said. “I just have to emphasize to everybody that COVID-19 is not fair. There are some people that have suffered incredible consequences. And there’s some people that have had a business model and made money off of it. Is that fair? No, but sometimes life’s not fair. You try and do all we can to make it as fair as possible. And that’s what we’re trying to do so.”
The Idaho Department of Correction on Wednesday announced that it had its first confirmed case of coronavirus at one of its prisons, the Idaho State Correctional Center. ISCC is a men’s prison in Kuna that houses more than 2,100. So far, only one inmate has tested positive.
Staying in Stage 4 doesn’t offer any additional restrictions to the state, outside of guidelines that were already in place. Because the Central District Health was forced to implement additional restrictions this week, Little sees it as a learning opportunity for business owners.
“Just the awareness that those opportunities could go away if things got worse, I think that that serves as an example,” Little said when asked how the state could slow the spread.
Unemployment in Idaho
The Idaho Department of Labor said Thursday that new initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits totaled 4,285 for the week ending June 20, increasing by 18% (654 claims) from the previous week.
Idaho workers have filed 157,143 initial claims for unemployment benefits during the 14 weeks since the COVID-19 state of emergency declaration, according to the department. That’s 2.7 times the total number of initial claims filed in all of 2019 in three months. About 78% of the initial claims filed were in the first six weeks
In the previous week, Idaho had seen some success in dealing with the backlog of people waiting for unemployment benefits. The department paid out $52.8 million in claims during the week of June 14-20, down from $86 million the week of June 7-13.
Little said Thursday that people making false unemployment claims has delayed the process of verifying incomes. It’s a process the Department of Labor is trying to work through, he said.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 12:14 PM.
