REXBURG — Throughout July and August, every county in eastern Idaho surrounding Madison was yellow, or at "moderate risk," at one point or another.

Days before Bonneville High School discovered a student with coronavirus was at school, prompting the school to close Wednesday and Thursday, health experts discussed Bonneville Joint School District 93’s curious new 7-day isolation policy.

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 this week that a single test will be available this fall to test for both.

Five eastern Idaho counties are now under mask mandates by regional health officials and, at one time or another, all eight have been.

Idaho Falls School District 91 has 11 students and six staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19. The district also has nearly 150 students districtwide who are isolating because they were in close contact with those who've tested positive.

Mandates come and go as deaths grow

Teton County is no longer under a countywide mask mandate from Eastern Idaho Public Health, and Jefferson County might join soon.

A female in her 30s from Bonneville County died of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, according to an email sent to media outlets Tuesday by Eastern Idaho Public Health.

Bonneville Joint School District 93 officials on Monday announced several confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its schools. The virus has affected both staff and students.

Before the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization in late August to an experimental COVID-19 treatment, a hospital in eastern Idaho was already offering it.

Weeks after the spike in July and early August, eastern Idaho appears to be seeing the next stage: A wave of deaths.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include information about school re-opening in Mackay.

Eastern Idaho Public Health confirmed two coronavirus-related deaths of Bonneville County residents this week, putting the total death toll due to the virus at 15 for eastern Idaho.

As coronavirus cases in Idaho long-term care facilities continue to grow, state officials report another 32 coronavirus cases linked with eastern Idaho long-term care facilities.

Swaths of inmates in another local jail have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Legal mandates for Idaho insurers to cover telehealth services at the same rate as in-person visits likely aren’t the best route for ensuring that telehealth payment parity remains, a state group of health care experts learned this week.

Come Monday, masks might not be legally required in three rural counties in eastern Idaho.

Medical professionals in eastern Idaho, in public meetings over the past two weeks, have said school re-openings put school administrators and health officials in a bind, forcing them to strike a careful balance.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to properly identify the Fremont County facility with an active coronavirus outbreak. Information released by the state on Friday included wrong information attributing the outbreak at a different facility.

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.

In states neighboring Idaho, definitions vary for when a case of COVID-19 has recovered.

Health officials from across Idaho on Tuesday discussed the role that regional health policy agencies should serve in school re-openings, ahead of a special session of the state Legislature where lawmakers could discuss stripping health districts of certain powers.

Eastern Idaho’s total coronavirus cases eclipsed 2,000 over the weekend.

Eastern Idaho Public Health (EIPH) has confirmed the death of a male in his 80s from Bonneville County due to complications of COVID-19. Out of respect to his family, no additional details will be released. "We would like to express our heartfelt sympathies to his family and friends during t…

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.

First, it started with an outbreak in one long-term care facility in Bonneville County, which the state reported nearly two weeks ago.

In most public places you enter in eastern Idaho, you’re now legally required to wear a mask, with some exceptions.

In half of east Idaho's counties, masks are mandatory and large events are restricted as eastern Idaho begins to reel with high caseloads that much of the state has already seen in recent weeks.

When David Frisby got home, he slept.

Eastern Idaho was hit with its first COVID-19 death associated with a long-term care facility this week, as nearby facilities reported new outbreaks, signaling a wave of more coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations could come soon, according to a weekly state report posted on Friday.

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. 

Two neighboring counties in eastern Idaho may be poised to have their coronavirus-related restrictions flip, after a series of votes by Eastern Idaho Public Health’s board of county representatives on Thursday.

(Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify how many residents at The Gables of Idaho Falls were asymptomatic.)

The following is a press release from Eastern Idaho Public Health:

More than a week into masks being mandatory in Bonneville County, two themes are emerging.

Coronavirus task force releases new report

Officials look to modify regional COVID plan

Tribal health officials on Wednesday reported 13 new COVID-19 cases on Fort Hall Indian Reservation.

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.

POCATELLO — As Gov. Brad Little announced on Thursday that he is keeping the state in Stage 4 of his four-step reopening plan because COVID-19 cases were rapidly rising, he doubled down on his shift toward having local and regional governments respond to the pandemic.

Bonneville County law enforcement officials on Wednesday attempted to abate public concern about how they’d enforce the new, countywide mask mandate, as they both said they’d opt to educate people about masks, rather than enforce the order.

Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson told city councilors on Wednesday that police generally wouldn't be enforcing Bonneville County's new mask mandate. He'd instead prefer people self-enforce.

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.

Responding to a weekend surge in COVID-19 cases in eastern Idaho, regional health officials on Tuesday mandated masks and barred large events for Bonneville County.