Do I still need a mask in Idaho? See CDC map for counties at high COVID community levels

Multiple counties in Idaho have moved out of the “high” COVID-19 community level, primarily in western regions of the state, the most recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention update shows.

Last week, the CDC rated nine of the state’s 44 counties at a high community level. As of Friday morning, that number had fallen to six.

Twenty-two counties are considered at a “low” level.

Despite the week-by-week decrease in high-risk counties, there’s been an overall upswing in COVID-19 cases as the dominant BA.5 omicron variant crawls across the U.S., even as public health measures to limit transmission dwindle.

COVID-19 Community Levels

The CDC updates its data Thursday evenings. As of July 21, about a fifth of Idaho’s counties were scored at the high level, where officials recommend individuals mask in indoor, public places.

The levels are determined using three factors: new cases per 100,000 people, new COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 people (both are seven-day totals) and percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients (a seven-day average).

In low-level counties, the federal health agency recommends you get vaccinated or boosted and test if you have symptoms. The same is true for counties at medium, but the CDC additionally advises people at high risk for serious complications to also consider masking and other precautions.

Anyone who has contact with someone COVID-positive or who has symptoms should get tested and mask if they must be in public.

In all, 42% of U.S. counties were at high community levels as of July 21, an increase from 35% last week.

Under a separate metric, all but four Idaho counties are at a high level of community transmission — Adams, Camas, Clark and Oneida Counties.

The COVID-19 community transmission levels are calculated by the CDC based on new cases per 100,000 people and the percentage of positive nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), both in the past seven days.

Idaho State data

The state reports its own COVID-19 data three times a week.

The latest report, dated July 20, shows nearly 1,529 new cases in the state since the start of the week. The state reports 5,010 deaths in Idaho attributed to the coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic, a handful more than the 4,994 reported by John Hopkins University and Medicine.

CDC data show Ada County’s case rate for the past seven days was 204.1 as of Friday morning, with a positivity rate between 20-25%.

About 56% of Ada County residents are fully vaccinated.