STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTO BY MORGAN BUCKERT

At least 30 people were reported as testing positive for COVID-19 within one cluster in Jerome County on Friday.

The jump in cases—one of the largest jumps the region has seen in weeks-- is the result of increased testing. And it added to a spike in Idaho cases, as the state reported 98 new cases for a total of 2,642. That's the most since April 4.

The state also reported two new deaths--both in Twin Falls County. The deaths involved a woman in her 70s and a woman in her 80s. The county has reported 19 all told.

Those testing positive in Jerome County worked in a local food processing plant called Rite Stuff Foods. The 30 new cases, added to earlier tests, mean that 50 of 173 employees have tested positive, according to KMVT. Because they work in surrounding counties, there will be in increase in those counties as well, health officials said.

South Central Public Health District officials expects to see more testing on employees of food processing plants in the area, thanks to organizations offering the opportunity for companies with a cluster of cases to test their entire employee base.

“We are in an area where agriculture is the dominant industry and food processing plants are a huge part of that,” said Logan Hudson, SCPHD public health division administrator. “The nature of some of these jobs require people to work closely together, making social distancing difficult. Respiratory viruses, like COVID-19, are in the perfect environment to spread readily.”

Melody Bowyer, director of South Central Public Health District, said she welcomes the opportunity to get a better picture of the spread of the virus in this region. Up to now, contacts within COVID-19 investigations have been very willing to do what they can to help prevent the spread of the disease. However, investigators are seeing more resistance.

Health officials are urging companies to be flexible with leave policies and encourage sick employees to stay home. In situations where a cluster of cases has been identified it’s recommended that facilities screen employees for illness, mandate employees stay home when sick and implement social distancing measures, if they haven’t already.

Health officials with the South Central Public Health District had warned that the district would see a jump in cases this week, thanks to added testing. The district accounted for 17 of the state’s new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday. On that day Twin Falls County had the most with eight new cases.

Twin Falls County has 374 confirmed cases, trailing Ada with 794 cases and Blaine County with 510. The state reported 2 new hospitalizations in the past couple days.

STATE RAMPS UP TESTING

Idaho will ramp up coronavirus testing as the Gem State makes plans to transition to Stage Three of its Idaho Rebounds plan.

The state is also attempting to get medical supplies to “testing deserts” in rural parts of the state, Gov. Brad Little said Friday.

Idaho ranks last among all 50 states in terms of the amount of testing per capita that it's done.

But, while the state’s testing capacity was 7,500 per week earlier this month, it could handle 23,000 tests per week in the near future. The focus will be on testing those who are infected, versus those who might have antibodies.

Little said the state wants to hit the federal benchmark of testing at least 2 percent of the state’s population by the end of the year.

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare public health administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch said that testing needs to be coupled with contact tracing, physical distancing and hand washing to be effective.

WHAT’S OUR FAVORITE QUARANTINE FOOD?

Yelp has surveyed the most popular delivery orders in every state during the pandemic. Alabamans are going for nachos while Alaskans favor gumbo. Californians want their bubble tea while Coloradans want Crab Rangoon.

The politicians in Washington, D.C. are going for biscuits while those in Nevada crave Spam musubi,  New Mexicans their green chili cheeseburgers and those cowboys in Wyoming, naan.

And Idaho? It’s not Famous Potatoes. It’s cheese pizza.

FITONE GOES VIRTUAL

St. Luke’s FitOne, which draws 12,000 participants each year will go virtual this year. Organizers will hold online challenges leading up to race day on Sept. 26. The FitOne, which originated to inspire people to healthiness, includes a 5K, 10K and half-marathon run.

CORONAVIRUS PEACE CORPS

Utah is creating something similar to the Peace Corps or Vista to aid in COVID-19 projects, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Utah college students in Utah’s Hope Corps are signing up for internships to expand random testing for the virus.

They’ll help owners of restaurants, retail shops and nonprofit groups adjust their business models to the new circumstances. And they’ll build mobile apps for curbside food delivery and reconnect vendors with cautious customers.

NO SYMPTOMS? YOU COULD HAVE COVID

The Centers for Disease Control estimates 35 percent of those infected with coronavirus are asymptomatic.

WE’LL BE A WHILE ROUNDING UP THE HERD

If you’ve been pinning your hopes on herd immunity, don’t hold your breath…this year, at least.

Herd immunity against COVID-19 will not be achieved in 2020, barring a public health catastrophe, say epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

Despite more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of the virus worldwide, as of early April 2020 no more than 2 to 4 percent of any country’s population had been infected, the report says.

Even in hotspots like New York City, just 15 to 21 percent have been exposed so far. And likely 70 percent or more of the population needs to be infected to reach herd immunity. That means more than 200 million Americans would need to get infected to reach that threshold.

STAYING AT HOME PREVENTED ILLNESS

Without government orders to stay home from mid-March to late April, 10 million more people in the United States would have been infected with the coronavirus by April’s end, a paper published this week in the Health Affairs journal suggests.

Nearly 44 percent of the nation’s residents stayed home between mid-March when public officials began to close schools and some workplaces and late April when restrictions were lifted or eased, according to cellphone data analyzed by the New York Times.

The major clusters of cases that have arisen have been almost exclusively in nursing homes, correctional facilities and food-processing plants without effective social distancing.