We know that Idahoans ages 18-24 make up 11 percent of Idaho’s population, but people in their late teens and 20s account for the plurality of COVID-19 cases so far during the pandemic, and it isn’t even close.

This week, Melissa Davlin discusses efforts to get college students vaccinated with Chris Owens, Associate Vice President of Kasiska Division of Health Sciences at Idaho State University in Pocatello.

Then, Alex Adams, administrator for the Idaho Division of Financial Management, joins to discuss Idaho’s record-breaking general fund revenues for fiscal year 2021, and what the state might do with the surplus.

In the last two weeks, nearly every COVID metric has worsened in Idaho, matching nationwide trends as the Delta variant spreads throughout the country.

On Tuesday, officials with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare told reporters that hospitalizations and new cases continue to increase, and almost every single one of those patients is unvaccinated. ICU admissions have doubled since the beginning of July.

The statewide test positivity rate has climbed to 5.7 percent, though some regions are seeing a higher percentage of tests coming back positive. Public Health District 6 in southeastern Idaho has a positivity rate of 8.4 percent, and Eastern Idaho's Public Health District 7 has a positivity rate of 9.9 percent.

So far, 30 cases with the highly transmissible Delta variant have been identified in Idaho. State epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn said Tuesday that doesn’t mean the Delta variant isn’t more prevalent in the state, and state laboratories are continuing to ramp up their efforts to sequence more positive samples to identify variants.

Currently, 52.2 percent of Idahoans ages 18 and older are at least partially vaccinated. Nationwide, that number is 68.6 percent.

Idaho is growing rapidly, and those growing pains aren't confined to Boise and the Treasure Valley. Last week, Logan Finney spoke with Madison Hardy of the Coeur d'Alene Press to get an update on the state of politics in Kootenai County, from a commissioner who's distancing himself from the local Republican party to a study group that's looking into restructuring the government of the state's third most populous county.

Don’t expect lawmakers to come back to Boise to prevent employers from requiring vaccinations as a condition of employment. Idaho Senate Republicans announced Friday they would rather work out disagreements without passing new laws, at least for the time being. Last week, three of Idaho’s largest health care providers announced they would require all employees to get vaccinated by this fall.

Idaho’s test positivity rate rose again last week, as did the statewide seven day moving average case rate and COVID-related hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

While the numbers are still much lower than the highs Idaho saw in December, they follow nationwide trends of rising cases as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads among mostly unvaccinated people. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has confirmed just nine cases of the Delta variant in Idaho so far.

Currently, 51.7 percent of Idahoans ages 18 and older are at least partially vaccinated. Nationwide, that number is 68 percent.

Idaho authorities are stressing the need for people to recreate responsibly, as Idaho is already seeing more than double the number of fires than the previous record.

“Idaho is experiencing severe drought and unprecedented fire conditions across most of the state,” said Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller. “Extreme fire conditions are at an all-time high and weather forecasts indicate that no relief is in the weeks ahead.”

Miller said during a press conference Tuesday at the National Interagency Fire Center that resources are already stretched thin and there is a significant shortage of people needed to fight fire.

Portions of the state are under Stage I and Stage II fire restrictions, and fire managers expect to announce additional restrictions in more parts of the state. IDL has an interactive website that displays current restrictions and what they mean: https://www.idl.idaho.gov/fire-management/fire-restrictions-finder/

Read more on the Idaho Reports blog: https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2021/07/13/idaho-sees-shortage-of-firefighters-amid-unprecedented-wildfire-conditions/

Watch the full press conference on the Idaho Reports YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Zo9ia3ZLI90

Three of Idaho’s largest health care providers announced this week they are requiring employees, volunteers and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by this fall.

In a Friday media call, St. Luke’s President and CEO Chris Roth said nearly 80 percent of St. Luke’s employees are already vaccinated, and with the uptick in cases nationwide related to the Delta variant, hospital leadership felt it was the right time to add the COVID vaccine to the list of required immunizations already in place for hospital employees. The announcements drew criticism from conservative lawmakers across the state.

The state’s test positivity rate remains low, but continues to creep up slightly at 3.6 percent. As of Friday morning, six cases of the Delta variant had been recorded in Idaho. Nationwide, the variant accounts for half of new cases recorded in the last week.

Nearly 724,000 Idahoans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the last week, providers have administered about 7,400 doses.

Last year, Idaho's three branches of government combined their efforts to address mental and behavioral health issues in the state through the formation of the Behavioral Health Council. Last week, they released a strategic action plan outlining recommendations for 2021-2024.

Producer Ruth Brown joins Logan Finney to give an overview of the issues under consideration including substance use disorders, youth mental health and adverse childhood experiences, and how the plan might be implemented moving forward.

Read Ruth's coverage of the plan on the Idaho Reports blog:

https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2021/07/02/behavioral-health-council-set-to-make-recommendations-to-governor-legislators-courts/

Learn more about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in Idaho:

https://www.idahoptv.org/resilientidaho/

Sunny Shaw, executive director of the Housing Alliance and Community Partnership in Pocatello, sat down with Idaho Reports to talk about the CDC’s eviction moratorium which will expire at the end of July. The moratorium was issued to help slow the pandemic by keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings like homeless shelters. Shaw also discussed rental and home affordability, growth, and the need she sees in Idaho for low-income housing funding.

People who need rental assistance related to COVID-19 can visit http://www.idahohousing.com for information and applications from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association.

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has announced that Idaho’s laboratories will soon be able to test every positive COVID-19 sample for variants. The news comes as the Delta variant continues to spread throughout the nation. So far, Idaho has just one confirmed Delta case, but nationwide, the strain has accounted for 20 percent of new positives in the last week, almost all among unvaccinated people.

State epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn said there isn’t evidence of large-scale undetected Delta spread in Idaho, as case counts and test positivity continue to drop. Last week, just 2.9 percent of the state’s tests came back positive. Still, the state wants to be prepared if and when the variant arrives, she said.

While half of Idaho’s adults are now at least partially vaccinated, the majority of counties haven’t yet hit the 50 percent threshold, with rural counties in particular lagging behind the state’s metropolitan counties. Rural counties also report the state’s highest death rates due to COVID 19.

We have much more information on the Idaho Reports blog. You’ll find the links on the Idaho Reports Facebook and Twitter pages.

This week, Idaho Voices for Children director Christine Tiddens joins Melissa Davlin to talk about the new KIDS COUNT Data Book, an annual report that examines child wellbeing state by state. This year's edition explores how families with children fared during the pandemic and broader trends since the Great Recession.

"What we've seen is that the number of Idahoans struggling to get by has really sharply increased, due to a variety of factors including the pandemic's really far reaching health and economic impacts," Tiddens said.

Davlin and Tiddens discuss the report, with wide-ranging data from educational outcomes and poverty rates to health insurance coverage and teen pregnancy rates, and the economic picture it paints for Idaho families. Tiddens also describes her organization's state and federal policy priorities, and what she thinks can be done to address trends that began long before the pandemic.