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BOISE – As new vaccines become available, COVID-19’s spread is rising in Idaho and across the nation.
Data suggests Idaho’s current uptick — from lower levels earlier this summer and late spring — isn’t as severe as early pandemic surges.
But Idaho public health experts are bracing for COVID levels to rise even more in the coming months. That’s as the school year starts, and respiratory viruses typical season approaches.
“It’s probably going to get worse in the fall and winter,” Idaho epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn told the Sun in an interview last week, adding that Idaho hospitals say they aren’t strained by the COVID uptick.
But the public has significantly less data to make personal health decisions, for instance, about mask wearing and limiting public outings. Since public health entities declared COVID no longer a public health emergency, data reporting around the coronavirus has dropped off.
There’s no longer daily case counts. Federally required hospitalization data — which stopped in May — is set to soon return starting in November.
Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke’s Health System, said it looks likely that the surge has peaked. But he stressed that it’s easier to make that call with more information.
“Of course, it will not be long until we have a new surge,” he told the Sun.
How can we tell how much COVID is spreading in Idaho?
Here’s what key COVID data for Idaho show: Wastewater: While the CDC reports Idaho’s wastewater COVID levels are “very high,” the rate of detecting the virus in wastewater isn’t “nearly as high as it was last winter,” Hahn said. Idaho’s current wastewater levels are 42% higher than the national rate, and 33% higher than the rate for the western U.S., CDC data show. Idaho was among 31 states with “very high” levels, CDC data for the week ending Aug. 29 show.
Emergency room visits: Visits to Idaho emergency departments for COVIDlike illnesses are up compared to lower levels this summer, with 93 hospitalizations reported on Aug. 14, compared to 57 on June 16.
