Public officials are urging people to accept "personal responsibility" to adhere to health guidelines as new coronavirus cases in Idaho see a resurgence unlike ever before.

On Oct. 7 Victor Mayor Will Frohlich sent a letter to the Teton County Sheriff’s Office requesting that the sheriff provide a bi-weekly report on actions taken by officers to enforce the city’s mask ordinance.

Brigham Young University-Idaho officials are warning students that anyone intentionally exposing themselves or others to COVID-19 will be suspended and may be permanently dismissed.

Eastern Idaho Public Health’s board substantially reduced or eliminated many restrictions in its pandemic plan, favoring public education about COVID-19 when the virus worsens in an area.

Regional health officials on Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping overhaul to their pandemic response plan. Until hospitals across the region are overwhelmed, officials won’t issue more social restrictions.

Idaho has released its first statewide report on the number of coronavirus cases at individual schools, though it admits the numbers are incomplete.

According to the Eastern Idaho Public Health dashboard for Thursday, Oct. 1, released at 5:07 p.m., Teton County has now seen its first coronavirus death of a resident since the pandemic hit in March. EIPH reports that the patient was a woman in her nineties. 

Regional health officials on Thursday, frustrated with an unprecedented surge of new coronavirus cases, followed course with their pandemic response plan by mandating masks in three counties with high rates of spread — Custer, Lemhi and Teton — but they said they'd look to change their plan.

At Monday's Teton School District 401 Board of Trustees special meeting, the board followed a recommendation from Superintendent Monte Woolstenhulme to close Driggs Elementary for part of this week because the school is extremely short on teachers, paraprofessionals, and substitutes. 

Three hospitals in eastern Idaho told regional health officials Thursday morning that they’re busy coping with a rise in COVID-19 patients.

After a late summer lull in reported positive COVID cases in Teton County, the number on Eastern Idaho Public Health’s dashboard has started to rise again, and many of the cases are coming from the school district.

According to a letter sent to parents on Sept. 21, a student at Driggs Elementary has tested positive for COVID-19.

BOISE — With lots of questions over how people in Idaho will know if they’re showing symptoms of COVID-19 or the flu, state epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn announced last week that a single test will be available this fall to test for both.

Jefferson's might end Saturday

Parents of Driggs Elementary students learned on Tuesday night that, only two days after school reopened, a child had tested positive for COVID. 

About a month ago, Bonneville and Jefferson counties were in the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s “red zone” for high risk of spread.

If eastern Idaho breaches metrics to reach a higher risk level, the Eastern Idaho Public Health board could issue a rigid ban on large gatherings throughout the region, officials voted Thursday.

Classes to start Aug. 31

As regional health officials continue to issue county mask mandates, they raised the threshold at which they would consider slightly more stringent event bans, requiring that any move to a high-risk level would have to be done at a higher caseload.

Fall sports given the green light

As Idahoans identify the many impacts of COVID-19, the need increases for behavioral health support, food security, housing, and other services. The Division of Behavioral Health in the Department of Health and Welfare and in conjunction with the Idaho Office of Emergency Management is pleas…

On Monday morning the Teton County Board of Commissioners passed an emergency ordinance requiring face coverings in the unincorporated county. The action was in response to Eastern Idaho Public Health’s decision last Thursday to lift Teton County’s public health order limiting mass gathering…

Coronavirus tracking metrics that regional health officials use to levy social restrictions were flawed throughout July because of delays in test processing, according to data analysis and interviews by the Post Register this week. 

BOISE — A joint legislative committee may push for a special legislative session before Idaho schools reopen, which in some districts, could be in as little as two and a half weeks.

Eastern Idaho regional health officials on Thursday held off on tweaking or repealing its mask mandate and large event ban for Teton County, leaving the legal order in place while they tweak the regional pandemic response plan.

Clark County, the least populated county in Idaho, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on Tuesday, winnowing down the number of counties that haven’t seen any COVID-19 cases to just two.

BOISE — July has not been a good month for Idaho on the coronavirus front, with two-thirds of all Idaho’s COVID-19 infections to date reported since July 1, and the month’s tally of deaths now surpassing April’s high, making July the deadliest month for the virus in Idaho, even before the mo…

BOISE — Gov. Brad Little announced last Thursday that Idaho will stay in Stage 4 of its reopening plan for at least another two weeks, and said he’s collaborating with public health district directors across the state to deal with the swelling COVID-19 pandemic.

Teton County is the first in eastern Idaho where masks are mandatory in public and large gatherings are barred across the county as of last Thursday, July 16.

A weekend surge of COVID-19 cases in eastern Idaho led regional health officials Tuesday to mandate masks in public and ban large events in Bonneville County, where the spike was most stark.

Teton County is the first in eastern Idaho where masks are mandatory in public and large gatherings are barred across the county.

Teton Valley Hospital throws support behind the mask order

Eastern Idaho Public Health's Board of Health on Tuesday organized plans to vote on an order to mandate face masks in Teton County. This on the heels of Teton County Commissioners tasking the emergency management department on Monday to draft its own mask requirement after the cities of Drig…

Eastern Idaho regional health officials on Thursday punted a decision to mandate masks until a later date, instead deciding they would soon vote to recommend face masks, which health officials already have been urging for months.

Hospital adjusts protocol for local businesses with COVID positive employees  

The school reopening plan heading to the State Board of Education on Thursday is built on the assumption that all districts can and will return to in-person classes this fall.

Driggs and Victor councils require masks in cities

Much of the Idaho Legislature will start to meet again soon to weigh some of the questions that have come up in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Eastern Idaho State Fair board is looking to move ahead with this year’s fair, but the mayor of Blackfoot and Bingham County officials have expressed reservations about whether it is safe due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Idaho Falls City Council on Thursday will consider making face masks mandatory in public spaces, as a growing number of Idaho cities are doing as the state’s COVID-19 caseload soars, according to an agenda posted on the city website on Tuesday evening.

Teton Valley Health reported a eleventh case of COVID-19 in Teton County in a female in her 40s stemming from contact with another active case.

It’s clear that testing for COVID-19 in eastern Idaho has improved.

The City of Driggs Mayor Hyrum Johnson passed a “mayoral emergency” ordinance on Thursday July 2 requiring masks to be worn in public and in local businesses. Johnson told the Teton Valley News that the decision was made to “empower” local businesses.