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Idaho's COVID numbers drop slightly, crisis standards remain

COVID-19
Posted at 5:02 PM, Nov 02, 2021
and last updated 2021-11-02 19:02:18-04

Idaho's rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations and newly confirmed coronavirus cases have been dropping in Idaho, but the numbers are still high enough to leave hospitals overtaxed.

Idaho Division of Public Health Administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch says the hospitals will remain under a “crisis standards of care” designation for now. This will giving them the ability to ration health care as needed to deal with high numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units and hospital beds.

Shaw-Tulloch said Tuesday Idaho's positivity rate of new cases is still more than double the 5% goal set by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.