Idaho adds largest weekly COVID-19 case tally since December, with hospitals full
Idaho added over 7,500 COVID-19 cases the week of Aug. 30, the highest weekly tally since early December, as the effects of the surging virus continue to be felt throughout the state.
Already, multiple schools in Idaho have temporarily closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks among staff or students at the start of the school year, and few areas in the state are requiring masks in schools.
Snake River Elementary, in Nampa, and the Basin School District, in Idaho City, will be closed until after Labor Day, while Payette High School will be closed until Sept. 13. At Boise State University, which started classes at the end of August, there have already been 202 positive cases: 118 off-campus students, 65 residential students and 19 faculty or staff members, according to the school’s data dashboard.
Of the school’s 90 isolation beds, over 43% are currently occupied.
In North Idaho, the region’s Panhandle Public Health District is so overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases that it has a backlog of around 800 cases dating from the second week of August, according to a spokesperson, Kimberly Young. Due to the backlog, the district is not able to contact those who test positive individually to give them guidance on self-isolating, as it normally does, and officials are unable to investigate each case and conduct contact tracing, she said.
“We hope to get through most of the backlog within the next two weeks,” Young said in an email to the Idaho Statesman on Friday. “However, as cases continue to rise, it will be difficult to remain current.”
Idaho hospitals are largely operating at capacity, with COVID-19 wards and intensive care units filled with mostly unvaccinated Idahoans. As of Sept. 1, there were 35% more patients in an intensive care unit than during the virus’s previous peak last winter.
The week of Aug. 30, Idaho added 7,648 cases, the highest weekly total since early December. The state’s test positivity rate stands at 14.2% for the week of Aug. 22, the most recent date available, according to data from the Department of Health and Welfare. Health experts widely consider positivity rates higher than the 5% benchmark an indication that a pandemic is out of control.
1,384 of this week’s cases were added on Friday, the same day that Dr. Ryan Cole, a vaccine skeptic, was confirmed to the Central District Health board by a single vote. The controversial doctor who has called vaccines “needle rape” and who has promoted treatments like ivermectin, a drug commonly used to treat livestock that has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19, was appointed by the Ada County commissioners on Aug. 17. Cole needed at least five votes from the nine commissioners in Boise, Elmore and Valley counties to be confirmed. On Friday, he received the needed fifth vote, with one of the three commissioners in Elmore County voting in his favor.
Health care officials this week said cases show no sign of stopping. The chief clinical officer at Saint Alphonsus Health System, Dr. Steven Nemerson, said at a press conference Thursday that modeling shows the surge in hospitalizations will continue through the month of September.
Hospitalizations have already surpassed levels seen last winter. On Sept. 1, the most recent date available, there were 527 people hospitalized with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the state. On Dec. 1, the previous peak, there were 496. In intensive care units, there were 165 people admitted with COVID-19 as of Sept. 1, surpassing the Dec. 18 peak of 122 by 43 patients.
“Every hospital in Idaho has some level of staffing shortage when it comes to available beds,” Toni Lawson, vice president of governmental relations at the Idaho Hospital Association, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview on Aug. 25. “Right now it’s a bit of a perfect storm. … We have seen kind of exponential growth in the number of patients needing top-level care.”
The state also added 52 deaths the week of Aug. 30. Hospital administrators at St. Luke’s, Saint Alphonsus and West Valley Medical Center said on Thursday that 95% of COVID-19 hospitalizations are among unvaccinated people, and Gov. Brad Little has said that close to 98% of deaths have been among unvaccinated people.
According to Health and Welfare, 49% of Idahoans 12 or older have been fully vaccinated.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 9,992 hospitalizations due to COVID-19, 1,661 people admitted to an intensive care unit and 11,595 healthcare workers infected.
For a county-by-county breakdown of Friday’s new cases and deaths, see our “What we know” file at IdahoStatesman.com.
Long-term care update
As of Friday, Health and Welfare reports that there are 3,423 active coronavirus cases among 88 facilities, which is 394 more than the 3,029 cases reported on Aug. 27. There are 240 facilities with resolved outbreaks.
To date, 826 people from 182 facilities in Idaho have died from COVID-19-related causes — five more than were reported last Friday. Long-term care deaths account for about 35% of the 2,379 deaths in the state.
The most recent data from Health and Welfare show that 76% of Idahoans age 65 and older have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
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.
American Falls: Power County Nursing Home; Blackfoot: Bingham Memorial Skilled Nursing; 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, Ashley Manor-Cloverdale, Cascadia of Boise, Arbor Valley of Cascadia, Grace Assisted Living at State St., Ashley Manor-Cory Lane (formerly AarenBrooke Place), Arbor Village at Hillcrest, Brooklyn House; Buhl: Desert View Care; Burley: Parke View Rehab; Caldwell: Autumn WInd Assisted Living; Coeur d’Alene: Ivy Court, 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, LaCrosse Health & Rehab; Eagle: Foxtail Senior Living, Ashley Manor-Storybook Way;
Emmett: Apple Valley Residence, Meadow View Assisted Living; Garden City: Emerson House at Riverpointe; Hayden: Harmony House Assisted Living, Maplewood Assisted Living; Idaho Falls: MorningStar of Idaho Falls, Fairwinds-Sand Creek, Yellowstone Group Home #1, Lily and Syringa Assisted Living, Tambree Meadows Assisted Living; Jerome: Desano Place Assisted Living; Kuna: Communicare #5 Kuna, Swan Falls Assisted Living; Lewiston: Advanced Health Care of Lewiston, Golden Girls Residential Care, Generations at Lewiston (formerly Guardian Angel), Royal Plaza-Lewiston, State Veterans Home-Lewiston, Lewiston Transitional Care of Cascadia;
Meridian: Edgewood Spring Creek Meridian, Harmony Hills, Tomorrow’s Hope-Lavin, Crestwood Serenity Assisted Living, Meridian Meadows Transitional Care, Meridian Meadows Assisted Living, Golden Years Oak Crest, Touchmark-Elkhorn Lodge; Montpelier: Bear Lake Memorial Skilled Nursing, Bear Lake Manor; Moscow: Good Samaritan Society-Moscow Village, Milestone Decisions #2 6th St, Palouse Hills Assisted Living; Nampa: Meadow View Nursing & Rehab, Wellspring of Cascadia, Golden Years-Maryland, Tomorrow’s Hope-Nampa, Southwest Idaho Treatment Center; Orofino: Clearwater Health & Rehab of Cascadia; Payette: Payette Healthcare of Cascadia; Pinehurst: Pacifica Senior Living Pinehurst;
Pocatello: Gateway Transitional Care Center, State Veterans Home-Pocatello, Quail Ridge, Quinn Meadows Rehab & Care Center, Elegant Residential Living, Caring Hearts Assisted Living; Post Falls: Life Care of Post Falls; Preston: Heritage Senior Living; Rexburg: Temple View Transitional Care; Rupert: Countryside Care and Rehab; Salmon: Discovery Rehab and Living; Sandpoint: Life Care Center of Sandpoint, Valley Vista Care-Sandpoint; Silverton: Good Samaritan Society-Silver Wood Village; Twin Falls: Serenity Transitional Care, Brookdale Twin Falls, Heritage Assisted Living, Canyons Retirement Community; Weiser: Cottages of Weiser; Winchester: Lakeside Assisted Living.
Weekly snapshot
Vaccine doses administered in Idaho: 1,505,574, according to Health and Welfare. Of those, 739,156 people have been fully vaccinated, which accounts for 49% of Idahoans age 12 and older.
Test positivity rate: Out of the 35,659 COVID-19 tests conducted for the week of Aug. 22-28, 14.2% came back positive.
