Idaho to remain in Stage 4

Gov. Brad Little announced Idaho will remain in Stage 4 of the Idaho Rebounds plan for another two weeks.

“We are in a much different place now than we were in March. Our economy is open. Many parents have returned to their places of work,” Little said. “We have increased our capacity for testing, contact tracing and PPE for healthcare workers and businesses.”

Little said Idaho is meeting the demands for testing healthcare workers statewide. He said Idaho is seeing downward trends in overall case counts as well as percent-positivity rate, and emergency room visits from those with COVID-like symptoms are on the decline.

According to data published this week, Idaho’s seven-day positive COVID-19 test percentage is 17.6% — the fifth-highest rate in the nation, lower only than Arizona, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama.

Little added overall hospital admissions statewide to the list of metrics used to examine Idaho’s situation every two weeks.

“We do need to bring down the number of hospital admissions statewide, but even in some of the hot spots we are starting to see the benefits of the measures that local health officials and mayors have implemented to reduce the rate of spread and preserve hospital capacity,” Little added. “Thank you, Idahoans, for your actions to protect yourselves and your neighbors. If we continue to practice preventive measures then we will be able to send our kids back to school where they deserve to be, we will keep our citizens safe and we will continue to rebound our economy.”

There were 22,707 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Idaho as of Wednesday, according to information provided by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. A record 242 patients were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of Monday, 42 of whom were in intensive care.

Panhandle Health District reported 76 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday. That brings the total cases to 2,034, with 722 active cases and 1,312 closed cases. There are 31 coronavirus patients currently hospitalized, per PHD.

Kootenai County has 1,684 cases, Bonner has 171, Shoshone has 76, Benewah 49 and Boundary 37.

As of Wednesday, 217 Idahoans have died of COVID-19.