Despite surge, Idaho has not imposed COVID-19 restrictions. What about neighboring states?
For more than a month, COVID-19 cases have been rising sharply in Idaho, with the number of daily new cases increasing by more than 1,200% since early July. Hospitalizations are soaring, too, with officials from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announcing on Tuesday that some hospitals are two weeks away from rationing care.
Despite the surge, state officials have done little to impose public health restrictions. At a press conference last week, Republican Gov. Brad Little asked more Idahoans to get vaccinated to protect the health of residents and ensure that schools can reopen safely, and stay open. But as has been his stance throughout the pandemic, the governor stopped short of issuing any sort of mask mandate or vaccine requirement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended mask requirements for schools, and other indoor settings, and some states have done that. In states bordering Idaho, the rise in cases because of the fast-spreading delta variant has led to a different response than what can be found in the Gem State.
On Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington announced a vaccination requirement for all school and university employees, and child-care centers, as well as a new statewide indoor mask mandate for all residents, regardless of vaccination status.
“It has been a long pandemic, and our students and teachers have borne their own unique burdens throughout,” Inslee said at a press conference. “We won’t gamble with the health of our children, our educators and school staff, nor the health of the communities they serve.”
He added that 95% of current COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state are among unvaccinated people.
In Oregon, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown announced a statewide indoor mask mandate on Aug. 11. Since the end of July, state employees have been required to wear masks indoors, and the governor signed an executive order on Aug. 13 requiring all executive branch employees to be fully vaccinated by October. Though nearly 71% of Oregon adults are fully vaccinated, some regions of the state have low vaccination rates, and hospitalizations are spiking.
On Wednesday, the state’s largest school district — in Portland — announced a requirement that all employees must be vaccinated when the school year begins on Sept. 1, according to an online post. Employees who do not get vaccinated will be required to be tested regularly.
At the start of August, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, issued a mask mandate for public indoor settings. On Wednesday, Sisolak announced that large indoor event venues could be exempt from the requirement if they require proof of vaccination to attend.
“This is cutting edge. There’s no other venues in the country that are doing this,” Sisolak said at a press conference on Monday, according to The Associated Press. “I think it is going to get more people wanting to go to an event because they know that when they walk in that arena, or that stadium, everybody’s vaccinated.”
Nevada also requires state employees who are not fully vaccinated to be tested weekly for COVID-19.
Neighboring states with Republican governors have largely declined to adopt public health measures to curb the spread of the virus, even as cases climb.
In Montana, the GOP-led legislature passed a law this spring barring employers from mandating vaccinations. Though cases there have not yet reached the counts experienced last November, they are rising rapidly and are at levels last seen in early February, according to data from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.
In June, Gov. Greg Gianforte ended the COVID-19 state of emergency he had declared in the state in January.
The seven-day average of new daily cases topped 1,000 for the first time since mid-February in Utah this week, according to data from that state’s Department of Health. The state has no mask mandate, and lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year banning local school districts from requiring face masks.
In Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon said at a press conference on Monday that the state would not mandate vaccinations for government employees and will instead leave public health decisions to local jurisdictions, according to the Casper Star-Tribune — a tactic Little has employed as well.
“On COVID, let me be clear that we are not going to issue any mandates, no mandates will come from this office. No face masks, no vaccination mandates,” Gordon said at a press conference, adding that “I do believe statewide orders are not necessary, what will help ease the situation is people choosing to get vaccinated.”
But as in Idaho, where the vaccination rate is one of the worst in the country — only 52% of the eligible Idaho population (12 and older) has received at least one dose, and just about 47% are fully vaccinated — Wyoming residents are simply choosing not to be vaccinated. Barely more than 40% of its population has received at least one dose, and only 34% are fully vaccinated.
On Tuesday, Wyoming’s seven-day average of new daily cases was 222, according to data from the Wyoming Department of Health. On Aug. 2, it was 97.
In Idaho, the seven-day moving average of new cases has soared to 715. That number was less than 50 in early July.
