‘Headed in a better direction’: Health officials think Idaho is past delta COVID peak

With Idaho’s test positivity rate and hospitalization rate declining for multiple weeks, health officials are becoming more confident that the state is past the peak of the COVID-19 delta surge.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said the state has “likely” already hit the peak of the current wave.

“Testing positivity has declined for the past four weeks, and the number of new cases has started to flatten out,” he said at the press briefing. “For the first time since July, things are headed in a better direction.”

After reaching a test positivity rate of 16% the week of Sept. 5, that number started falling each week, and it was 10.6% for the week of Oct. 3, which is the most recent data available. That still far exceeds the 5% that experts like to see to demonstrate control of the virus spread.

Jeppesen also noted that there are “encouraging trends” in the hospitalization data.

After peaking at 793 patients hospitalized with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 on Sept. 29, the number has declined, and it hit a daily average census of 615 as of Oct. 16.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units is also down, from a peak of 213 on Sept. 24 to a daily average census of 108 as of Oct. 16.

Still, health officials emphasized that the state remains in crisis standards of care, with many hospitals experiencing patient levels at or near their capacity. Hospitals in the Treasure Valley and North Idaho still have more patients than they did when crisis standards were activated, and the state will not return to standard levels of care until the number of patients declines further and staffing ratios at hospitals are better, according to Jeppesen.

Most surgeries that do not have a high level of urgency are still on hold.