Coronavirus trendline, 12.26.20: Numbers slow during holiday week

New coronavirus case numbers and COVID-19 deaths appeared to drop across Idaho during Christmas week.

As of Saturday evening, the state and its seven health districts reported 135,886 confirmed or probable coronavirus cases, a 6 percent increase from the previous week.

Over the eight-day period, 79 Idahoans died from COVID-19.

New hospitalizations and ICU admissions also appeared to slow somewhat — and this remains a critical metric, as health care experts fear a surge of coronavirus cases could force swamped hospitals to ration care.

While this week’s numbers appear encouraging, they also are probably incomplete. Health districts are not required to report numbers every day, so delays are likely because of the Christmas holiday.

One key trend this week: Ada and Kootenai counties account for nearly half of the new cases over the past eight days.

Here are the latest numbers, and comparisons with last week:

Statewide data Dec. 18 Dec. 26 Change, Dec. 12-18 Change, Dec. 19-26
Cases, confirmed and probable 128,218 135,886 8,375 7,668
Total cases, ages 0-4 1,901 2,005 143 104
Total cases, ages 5-12 4,510 4,712 271 202
Total cases, ages 13-17 7,296 7,625 435 329
Total cases, ages 18-29 32,601 34,328 1,794 1,727
Deaths 1,275 1,354 109 79
Patients ever hospitalized 5,086 5,392 367 306
Patients ever admitted to ICU 928 982 57 54
Patients recovered, estimated 49,914 54,574 4,104 4,660
Idahoans tested 521,917 536,767 19,847 14,850
Health care workers infected 6,215 6,629 418 414
Vaccine doses administered 2,306 9.673 2,306 7,367
Positive test rate (based on all cases divided by testing numbers, as reported by the state) 24.5 percent 25.3 percent +0.6 percentage points +0.8 percentage points

 

Top 10 counties, by total cases Dec. 18 Dec. 26 New cases, Dec. 19-26 New cases per day, per 100,000 population
Ada 33,610 36,438 2,828 73.4
Canyon 19,082 19,903 821 44.6
Kootenai 10,937 11,942 1,005 75.9
Bonneville 9,574 10,084 510 55.6
Twin Falls 7,600 7,773 173 24.8
   
Bannock 5,845 6,189 344 49.0
Madison 5,019 5,162 143 45.0
Bingham 3,399 3,536 137 36.6
Nez Perce 2,846 2,944 98 30.3
Cassia 2,433 2,483 50 26.0
 

 

Ten hotspot counties (most daily cases, per 100,000 population) Dec. 18 Dec. 26 New cases, Dec. 19-26 New cases per day, per 100,000 population
Adams 173 225 52 151.4
Valley 364 443 79 86.7
Kootenai 10,937 11,942 1,005 75.9
Ada 33,610 36,438 2,828 73.4
Elmore 1,161 1,316 155 70.4
   
Shoshone 733 803 70 67.9
Bonner 1,563 1,807 244 66.8
Idaho 922 1,004 82 61.5
Lewis 317 335 18 58.6
Butte 146 158 12 57.8

 

Kevin Richert

Kevin Richert

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 30 years of experience in Idaho journalism. He is a frequent guest on "Idaho Reports" on Idaho Public Television and "Idaho Matters" on Boise State Public Radio. Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KevinRichert. He can be reached at [email protected]

Get EdNews in your inbox

Weekly round up every Friday