On Monday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reactivated crisis standards of care for three of southern Idaho’s public health districts due to a critical shortage of healthcare staff, as well as blood products used for transfusions and certain treatments.

The affected health districts include Southwest Public Health, Central District Health, and South Central Public Health. IDHW says the rest of the state may fall under crisis standards of care if trends don’t soon change.

Idaho continues to break daily case count records, with thousands of new cases recorded every day, and more than 40,000 backlogged positive laboratory results that haven’t yet been logged.

Hospitalizations continue to rise, including among pediatric patients. The state’s test positivity rate is at 38 percent, with East Idaho Public Health District reporting a positivity rate near 50 percent.

Two years into the pandemic, how are Idaho’s public colleges and universities faring?

Presidents Gordon Jones of College of Western Idaho and Cynthia Pemberton of Lewis-Clark State College discuss staff retention and student outcomes in higher education.

The Department of Health and Welfare reactivated crisis standards of care for three public health districts.

Associate producer Logan Finney gives us an update on the Supreme Court decision on Idaho’s legislative redistricting map.

The legislature’s joint budget committee heard budget requests and presentations from Idaho’s higher education institutes this week.

President Gordon Jones of College of Western Idaho and President Cynthia Pemberton of Lewis-Clark State College join Melissa Davlin to discuss staff retention and student outcomes in higher education. They also talk about career technical education, and the future of education in Idaho.

This week, Dr. Walter Kelley, medical officer for the American Red Cross Lewis and Clark and Arizona regions, joins Melissa Davlin to discuss the emergency blood shortage affecting Idaho and the rest of the nation. That blood shortage is a key reason the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare re-activated crisis standards of care for three public health districts in southwestern Idaho on Monday.

This activation is different than the delta-driven surge in the fall, when hospital capacity was a key factor. Hospitalizations are rising, but what’s putting so much strain on the healthcare system is the combination of the blood shortage and healthcare workers getting sick with the omicron COVID-19 variant.

This week, Ruth Brown is joined by Reps. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, and Sally Toone, D-Gooding, for a discussion on education content standards and the prospect of all-day kindergarten. Then, Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News joins Logan Finney to break down the budgets and the debates.

On Thursday, the statewide test positivity rate climbed to a record-breaking 34.1 percent, meaning that one in every three COVID tests came back positive last week. Public health officials’ goal is to keep that positivity rate below 5 percent.

Eastern Idaho Public Health District had the highest infection rate this week, coming in at 44.7 percent. In Madison County, the positivity rate exceeded 58 percent.

On Tuesday, Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said he believes it’s likely that hospitals may be forced back into crisis standards of care soon due to increasing numbers of healthcare workers out of work due to illness. Hospitalizations also increased this week.

The state reports there are at least 33,500 positive tests backlogged in the public health districts. As of Thursday, 4,317 Idahoans had died of COVID-19.

For the first time in more than a decade, with the support of the governor, the Idaho Department of Correction is asking lawmakers for funding to build a new prison. On Tuesday, IDOC Director Josh Tewalt pitched his $333 million budget request to the Joint Finance Appropriation Committee, outlining some of the department’s greatest needs. Those requests included $112.4 million for a new 848-bed minimum custody women’s prison at the Idaho Department of Correction complex in Kuna.

Logan Finney and Ruth Brown discuss the IDOC budget request and the need for more prison bed space. Then, Rachel Cohen of Boise State Public Radio joins Ruth to discuss a recent report that revealed Idaho has the highest female incarceration rate in the country.

Read Ruth Brown's coverage on the blog: https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2022/01/18/idaho-department-of-correction-hopes-to-build-new-womens-prison/

Read Rachel Cohen's coverage at Boise State Public Radio: https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2022-01-13/idaho-has-the-highest-female-incarceration-rate-in-the-country

Learn more about ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences: https://www.idahoptv.org/shows/specials/resilience/

It's the first week back at the statehouse, and lawmakers are already pushing for big income tax cuts. House Speaker Scott Bedke and Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea join Logan Finney to discuss tax policy priorities and the start of the 2022 legislative session. Meanwhile, the omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the state.

Read more about HB 436 on the blog: https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2022/01/12/tax-relief-bill-introduced-in-house-committee

Currently, public health districts across the state are overwhelmed with positive coronavirus cases, driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant. As of Thursday afternoon, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reported a backlog of almost 18,000 positive laboratory results that hadn’t yet been processed. That’s in addition to the thousands of positive cases the state officially recorded this week.

The statewide test positivity rate broke an all-time record high last week, at 25.7 percent. That rate varies by region, with 27 percent in north Idaho’s Panhandle Health District, 26 percent in Central District Health, and 31 percent in Eastern Idaho Public Health District. No district in the state fell below 18 percent.

Hospitalizations are also going up, though not as rapidly. This week, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen warned that hospitals could soon see a return to crisis standards of care, due to a combination of the rise in cases and so many healthcare workers calling in sick.

Logan Finney is joined by Kelcie Moseley-Morris of the Idaho Capital Sun to discuss issues within Idaho's child welfare system, including a shortage of social workers and foster families, and what's being considered to reform the system.