COVID-19: Cases continue to decline in Idaho; CDC, city of Boise reduce mask guidance
One week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention debuted new masking guidelines for COVID-19, the Boise area was lowered from the high-risk category to medium risk, prompting Boise Mayor Lauren McLean to rescind the city’s mask requirement.
The statewide test positivity rate fell to 6.2% for the week of Feb. 20, the most recent data available. Though it’s still higher than the 5% figure that health officials target to indicate control of COVID-19 spread, it’s the lowest positivity rate Idaho has reported since mid-December, before the spike in cases from the omicron variant.
Since Feb. 25, Idaho has recorded 8,845 new COVID-19 cases, but the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare still has a backlog of 8,200 cases to process from the recent surge, meaning case data is skewed.
The number of backlogged cases is a fraction of the peak of 40,000 in early February.
As of Friday, there have been 15,972 total hospitalizations, 16,115 health care workers infected and 2,732 people admitted to intensive care, according to state data.
COVID-19 hospitalizations have continued to decline since the end of January. Data from March 2, the most recent day available, indicated there were 175 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 at Idaho hospitals and 25 in intensive care.
By Friday, 54% of Idahoans 5 or older were fully vaccinated. Idaho’s vaccination rate has grown slowly in recent weeks, with about 4,000 vaccine doses administered statewide the week of Feb. 27 — 1,000 fewer than the previous week.
CDC, city reduce Boise mask guidelines
The CDC on Thursday moved the Treasure Valley to “medium” on its risk chart. The guidelines, which were announced last week, look at transmission levels, hospitalization rates and more to determine risk on a county-by-county level. When the system was first unveiled, the Treasure Valley was in the highest tier, with recommendations for people to wear masks when indoors in public.
With Thursday’s update, counties in south-central Idaho are the only ones still under high-risk recommendations. North Idaho remained in the medium risk category, while East Idaho and Central Idaho were considered low risk.
The Treasure Valley’s new risk category means CDC recommendations are that people talk with their doctors about whether they are at high risk for COVID-19 and should continue masking as a precaution. Others are not subject to a mask recommendation.
As a result of the category change, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean announced Friday that masks will no longer be required in city buildings or at city events. The city’s mask mandate had been in place since July 2021.
Long-term care
At long-term care facilities, 50 new cases have been recorded in the past week.
As of Friday, Health and Welfare reports there are 11,604 active coronavirus cases among 187 long-term care facilities. There are 173 facilities with resolved outbreaks.
Four people in long-term care died of COVID-19 in the last week. To date, 1,076 people from 225 facilities in Idaho have died from COVID-19-related causes. Long-term care deaths account for about 23% of the 4,788 in the state.
Below is a list of Idaho cities along with the number of facilities in each city that have active cases 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 (2), Ammon (1), Ashton (1), Bellevue (1), Blackfoot (3), Boise (43), Bonners Ferry (3), Buhl (1), Burley (3), Caldwell (6), Chubbuck (2), Coeur d’Alene (12), Eagle (5), Emmett (4), Fruitland (1), Garden City (2), Glenns Ferry (1), Gooding (1), Grangeville (2), Hayden (2), Homedale (1), Idaho Falls (5), Jerome (3), Kellogg (1), Kimberly (1), Kootenai (1), Kuna (1), Lewiston (7), McCall (1), Meridian (16), Moscow (2), Mountain Home (2), Nampa (11), Orofino (1), Parma (1), Payette (2), Pocatello (8), Post Falls (4), Rexburg (2), Rupert (1), Sandpoint (3), Shoshone (1), Silverton (1), St. Maries (1), Star (2), Twin Falls (11), Weiser (1), Wendell (1).
Weekly snapshot
Vaccine doses administered in Idaho: 2,293,116, according to Health and Welfare. Of those, 924,223 people have been fully vaccinated, which accounts for 54% of Idahoans age 5 and older.
Test positivity rate: Out of the 17,255 COVID-19 tests conducted for the week of Feb. 20-Feb. 26, 6.2% came back positive.
For a list of daily numbers in the Treasure Valley, visit our “What We Know” story.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 6:43 PM.
