COVID-19 Update: October 29, 2021

On Friday, the FDA authorized COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11. The CDC must still give the final approval before pediatricians can begin administering those shots, but that approval may come as soon as next week. The statewide test positivity rate, or percentage of tests that come back positive, has dropped to 11.5 percent, down from this surge’s high of 17 percent. That’s the lowest that number has been since the beginning of August. Public health officials would like to see the percentage drop to 5 percent or lower. Still, north Idaho continues to see much higher levels of community spread, with a test positivity rate of 19.2 percent. Those rates are especially high in Boundary, Shoshone, and Bonner counties. In southern Idaho, Bonneville and Jefferson counties have the highest seven day rolling average case rates. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions continue to drop, though are still higher than they were at the peak of last December’s surge. A number of Idaho hospitals continue to operate under crisis standards of care, meaning higher nurse to patient ratios and cancelled procedures.