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Central District Health asks people to take COVID-19 more seriously

Posted at 4:32 PM, Jul 01, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-01 23:59:35-04

BOISE, Idaho — The number of coronavirus infections in Ada County is climbing. The week from June 21-June 28 saw an average of more than 100 cases per day.

Central District Health is still advising people to take proper precautions including wearing masks, social distancing, sanitizing their hands and staying home if they are sick.

"Enough people aren't taking it seriously, and they need to because it is going to continue to spread throughout our communities and have pretty adverse impacts on some of our population," said Brandon Atkins of Central District Health. "We need to be doing more."

On June 22, Central District Health issued an order for Ada Country to return to Stage 3.

Governor Little announced last Thursday that Idaho would transition to a regional approach because while Ada County has more than 2,000 cases, other counties have had limited exposure to the virus.

Ada County has more cases than the next four highest counties combined those include Canyon County, Twin Falls County, Blaine County, and Kootenai County.

We wanted to figure out if Ada County is in danger of regressing to Stage 2, and found out that it would take a 50 percent increase in cases this week.

Atkins told us that every Tuesday, the Central District Health board reviews these numbers and determines how to proceed.

"If we were to continue to see the numbers that we currently are seeing, we could easily hit between 750 to 1,000 cases this week," said Atkins.

The differences from Stage 3 to Stage 2 would limit gatherings from 50 people to 10, and people would be advised to limit non-essential travel.

Atkins said Central District Health could put in more restrictions, but they could be an amendment to Stage 3 instead of moving backward if the numbers reach that benchmark.

Central District Health has also made the board meetings available to the public. Here is the link to where you can access the meetings.