‘The wrong way’: Mask mandates begin to return as Idaho’s virus numbers balloon
The ongoing surge in COVID-19 case numbers in Idaho has prompted some public locations to bring back mask mandates that had been lifted earlier this year.
The Boise School District reinstated a mask mandate for the coming school year on Tuesday, and the Ada County Courthouse will again begin requiring masks on certain levels of the building on Monday. Late last month, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean announced masks will be required in all city facilities.
The changes come as the state sees its fifth straight week of surging case numbers. The seven-day moving average of new daily cases has increased more than 900% since July 5. On Friday, the average was 515.3 cases per day. On July 5, it was 49.7, according to data from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
The state’s test positivity rate — an indicator used by public health experts to measure community spread — is at levels last seen in mid-January. The rate, now at 10.7% for the week of July 25-31, is more than double the benchmark of 5% that many health experts use to measure control of a virus.
“Our coronavirus metrics have really gone the wrong way for the last several weeks,” Dave Jeppesen, director of Health and Welfare, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
And the increase has not only been in case numbers.
Hospitalizations have also risen markedly, with the number of beds filled at levels last seen in early February, and the number of ICU patients at a level last seen in mid-January. As of Wednesday, there were 208 patients hospitalized with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 at hospitals in the state, and there were 74 patients in an ICU, according to Health and Welfare.
The state added 20 deaths this week, pushing the total to 2,217 since the start of the pandemic.
Health officials in Idaho believe the delta variant, a version of the coronavirus that is significantly more contagious and may be more dangerous than earlier versions, is largely responsible for the surge in numbers. Of the positive tests sequenced by the Idaho Bureau of Laboratories between June 19 and July 19, over 81% of them were found to be the delta variant, as opposed to other versions of the virus.
In the last few weeks, doctors and hospital administrators have increasingly implored residents to get vaccinated against the disease. The vaccines are safe and effective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and data released in July from Health and Welfare showed that 99% of hospitalizations, deaths and cases recorded since Jan. 1 have been in unvaccinated people.
Only 46.3% of Idahoans 12 and over have been fully vaccinated, which is significantly lower than the nationwide average of 58.4%, according to Health and Welfare.
To date, there have been 11,276 health care workers infected with the virus, 9,213 people have been hospitalized and 1,539 people have been admitted to an ICU.
Long-term care update
As of Friday, Health and Welfare reported that there are 1,963 active COVID-19 cases associated with 46 long-term care facilities, which is higher than last week’s 1,475 cases. There are 276 facilities with resolved outbreaks.
To date, 811 people from 181 facilities in Idaho have died from COVID-related causes — five more than were reported last week. Long-term care residents and staff account for about 37% of COVID-related deaths.
Below is a list of long-term care facilities by city that have active cases of the coronavirus among residents and/or staff. For an outbreak to be considered “resolved,” more than 28 days must pass (two incubation periods) without any additional cases associated with the facility.
Ammon: Promonotory Point Rehabilitation; Boise: State Veterans Home-Boise, Aspen Valley Senior Living, Park Place Assisted Living, Edgewood Spring Creek-Overland, Cottages of Boise, Edgewood Spring Creek Ustick, Terraces of Boise; Bellevue: Cove of Cascadia; Caldwell: Lenity Senior Living; Chubbuck: Brookdale Chubbuck; Coeur d’Alene: Ivy Court, Lodge at Fairway Forest, Coeur d’Alene Health and Rehab of Cascadia, Garden at Orchard Ridge, Pacifica Senior Living Coeur d’Alene, Advanced Health Care of Coeur d’Alene, Legends Park Assisted Living, Life Care Center of Coeur d’Alene; Eagle: Foxtail Senior Living; Emmett: Apple Valley Residence; Garden City: Emerson House at Riverpointe; Jerome: Creekside Residential Care Center; Kuna: Communicare #5 Kuna; Lewiston: Advanced Health Care of Lewiston;
Meridian: Grace Assisted Living-Fairview Lakes, Edgewood Spring Creek Meridian, Harmony Hills, Tomorrow’s Hope-Lavin, Crestwood Serenity Assisted Living, Meridian Meadows Transitional Care, Meridian Meadows Assisted Living, Montpelier: Bear Lake Manor, Bear Lake Memorial Skilled Nursing; Nampa: Grace Assisted Living-Nampa, Meadow View Nursing & Rehab; Payette: Payette Healthcare of Cascadia; Pocatello: Gateway Transitional Care Center, Brookdale Pocatello, Monte Vista Hills, State Veterans Home-Pocatello; Rupert: Countryside Care and Rehab; Sandpoint: Life Care Center of Sandpoint; Silverton: Good Samaritan Society-Silver Wood Village; Twin Falls: Twin Falls Transitional Care of Cascadia, Serenity Transitional Care.
Weekly snapshot
Vaccine doses administered in Idaho: 1,406,351, according to Health and Welfare. Of those, 698,267 people have been fully vaccinated, which accounts for 46.3% of Idahoans age 12 and older.
Test positivity rate: Out of the 19,128 COVID-19 tests conducted for the week of July 25-31, 10.7% came back positive.
Counties with highest current seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 population, per Health and Welfare: Nez Perce 53.4, Clearwater 50.6, Twin Falls 43.9, Shoshone 41.0, Kootenai 37.6.
Visit our “what we know” file for a daily look at new cases by county and other key numbers.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 7:17 PM.
