Coronavirus trends show continued improvement

Idaho’s coronavirus trends continued to move in the right direction last week.

New case numbers continue to slow — with large school districts and Idaho college campuses reporting no more than a handful of cases.

Here are the weekly numbers.

Overall cases: The state and its seven health districts reported 3,911 new coronavirus cases last week — the lowest weekly rate since before Christmas.

All told, Idaho has tallied 442,178 confirmed or probable coronavirus cases.

Case backlog: All but erased.

The state says it still has about 400 positive laboratory results from late January or early February, “pending local public health district review and followup.” A week ago, the backlog was 3,400.

Child cases: Also decreasing, to a three-month low.

The state tallied 323 new cases involving school-age children last week, the lowest figure since the week ending Dec. 18.

Test positivity rate: A record low.

For the week ending March 12, only 2.5% of coronavirus tests came back positive.

That’s the lowest rate in the two years of the pandemic, and down from 3.7% the previous week.

Hospitalizations: Dropping across the board.

Numbers from Wednesday:

Total COVID-19 hospitalizations: 98, a 28% weekly decrease.

ICU admissions: 18, down 40%.

Pediatric admissions: Two, down from four the previous week.

Deaths: Also decreasing.

The state reported 15 deaths last week, less than half the deaths from the previous week.

Idaho’s COVID-19 death toll stands at 4,834.

Vaccination rate: 54.2%, for all Idahoans, ages 5 and up. (Last week, 54.1%.)

Booster shot rate: 44.5%, for all age groups. (Last week: 44.4%.)

Kevin Richert

Kevin Richert

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 35 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. He can be reached at [email protected]

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