On Friday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,582 new cases and 15 new deaths to its statewide total. That brings the statewide total to 119,620 known cases and 1,151 deaths.

Today the Health and Welfare board adopted rules for activating crisis standards of care. Those are the guidelines that healthcare providers, including 911 services, will use to decide who will receive critical care and who won’t when services are limited.

Governor Brad Little today increased the number of Idaho National Guard members called up to support the state’s COVID response to up to 250 personnel.

On Thursday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,825 new cases and 33 new deaths to its statewide total. That brings the statewide total to 118,028 known cases and 1,136 deaths.

Last week, the state’s positivity rate was 20 percent, a new record high.

Today, Governor Brad Little announced that Idaho will remain in a modified Stage Two, so no additional restrictions or mandates are in place statewide from what we’ve seen for the last month.

Meanwhile, doctors warned Eastern Idaho Public Health District’s board on Thursday morning that the state is continuing to get closer to crisis standards of care. We’ll have more on Friday’s Idaho Reports.

Ten of today's deaths were reported in Canyon County. Three deaths each were reported in Bonneville and Twin Falls counties. Two deaths each were reported in Bannock and Gem counties. One death each was reported in Adams, Bear Lake, Bingham, Cassia, Clearwater, Gooding, Idaho, Jerome, Minidoka, Nez Perce, Owyhee, Payette and Washington counties.

On Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 2,298 new cases and 29 new deaths to its statewide total. Today’s case count once again breaks the record for the most cases added in a single day, and is the second day in a row over 2,000 cases. That puts the statewide total at 116,203 cases and 1,103 deaths

The Gem County Coroner has borrowed a refrigerated support trailer from Ada County to handle an overflow of bodies. Gem County usually averages 190 to 205 deaths a year, but has had over 240 already. Only a few deaths are COVID related, but the coroner’s office is concerned about the future, had run out of space and needed additional storage.

Governor Brad Little will hold a press conference tomorrow at 12 pm Mountain Time, 11 am Pacific Time. You can watch it on Idaho Public Television or stream it online.

On Tuesday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 2,012 new cases and 19 new deaths to its statewide total. Today’s total once again breaks the single-day record for the most cases added to the department’s statewide tally. That brings the statewide total to 113,905 known cases and 1,074 deaths.

Today's deaths were reported in Canyon (3), Gooding (3), Bannock (2), Blaine (2), Twin Falls (2), Caribou (1), Cassia (1), Gem (1), Kootenai (1), Madison (1), Nez Perce (1) and Owyhee (1) counties.

This evening, Central District Health abruptly cancelled a meeting after protesters came to the homes of board members to protest a new draft order. According to board member Dr. Ted Epperly, the mayor of Boise asked that the meeting be shut down for public safety concerns. The board was scheduled to vote on a less restrictive version of an order that was tabled at last Friday’s meeting. We’ll continue following this developing story online, and will have more on this week’s Idaho Reports.

On Monday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,383 new cases and 20 new deaths to its statewide total. That's in addition to 2,144 cases and 3 deaths over the weekend, bringing the statewide total to 111,893 known cases and 1,055 deaths.

During a Friday evening Central District Health meeting, hospital officials from St. Luke's and St. Alphonsus in Boise warned that Idaho is close to declaring crisis standards of care, meaning health care services will be prioritized for patients based on how critically they need it, and how good their chance of survival is. Officials said that without changes, Idaho will likely hit that crisis near the end of December.

This week, Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News and Betsy Russell of the Idaho Press join Melissa Davlin to discuss the legislature’s organizational session and what implications that might have on policy in the upcoming session.

But first, Idaho’s COVID situation continues to worsen. In the last week, the state surpassed 100,000 known cases and 1,000 recorded deaths. But even if you are still not concerned about the virus, even if you had a mild case of it and recovered, there is still one piece of this puzzle that has the potential to affect anyone who needs medical care: hospital capacity.

On Friday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,911 new cases and 18 new deaths to its statewide total, another new single-day case record. That brings the statewide total to 108,366 known cases and 1,032 deaths.

Dr. Ken Krell told the Eastern Idaho Public Health board that the situation at Eastern Idaho Region Medical Center is so bad that they’re starting to ration care. He called on the board to take enforceable action to slow the spread of the virus.

Tonight, the Central District Health Board will consider implementing health orders such as mask mandates, moving restaurants to take out only and closing restaurants and bars by 10pm.

Tonight on Idaho Reports, our show looks at COVID in Idaho and

what happened at this week’s legislative organizational session.

On Thursday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,721 new cases and 23 deaths to its statewide total. That brings the statewide total to 106,455 known cases and 1,014 deaths.

According to a weekly report released by the White House coronavirus task force, Idaho is the number one state in test positivity, or the percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive. The report also says that 89 percent of Idaho’s counties are in the red zone for high levels of community spread. We’ll have more on the Idaho Reports blog on Friday.

On Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,429 new cases and 31 deaths to its statewide total. That brings the statewide total to 104,734 known cases and 991 deaths. Today is the second day in a row that DHW has reported over 30 deaths.

At the Central District Health Board meeting yesterday, the message was that Ada County is on the verge of a public health crisis. The board will meet on Friday to consider a draft health order for Ada, Elmore, Boise, and Valley counties. Those orders could include mask mandates in public, limiting capacity for bars and restaurants, and directing businesses to use curbside and takeout services. If passed, the orders would be enforceable as a misdemeanor if residents don’t comply.

On Tuesday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare added 1,607 new cases and 31 deaths to its statewide total. That brings the statewide total to 103,305 known cases and 960 deaths.

The state hasn’t yet released updated hospitalization numbers and ICU bed capacity, but according to the Idaho Statesman there were just 8 available ICU beds in Treasure Valley’s St. Luke’s facilities today. Some of those were reserved for patients who were coming out of surgery. Statewide, other ICUs and COVID units continue to struggle with capacity issues.