Gov. Little announces Idaho will stay in Stage 2 of COVID-19 response, no mask mandate

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Nearly a month after announcing Idaho would fall back into a modified Stage 2 in its COVID-19 reopening plan, Gov. Brad Little announced Thursday that the state would stay there. He again resisted stricter measures, such as a statewide mask mandate.

Little — who held a virtual press conference Thursday — said hospitals are reaching a dangerous level of capacity and the state could ration care if the spread doesn’t slow down.

With the exception of a limit on gatherings larger than 10 people, Little has implemented few restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus. He’s repeatedly said he will not implement a statewide mask mandate. On Thursday, he asked Idahoans to “choose” to wear masks.

On Wednesday, Idaho health districts reported a single-day high of 2,231 new coronavirus cases — 1,840 confirmed and 391 probable. Ada County alone reported more than 1,100 new COVID-19 cases in the past two days. A record 37 deaths were reported Wednesday, with counties across Idaho reporting fatalities connected to the coronavirus.

During Little’s last press conference on Nov. 13, he also announced he would sign an executive order to mobilize 100 members of the Idaho National Guard to help medical facilities across Idaho. That order was set to last 30 days. He also announced a regression into an edited version of Stage 2 of the Idaho Rebounds plan, which allowed bars and nightclubs to remain open with certain restrictions.

The Stage 2 regression also limited gatherings to no more than 10 people, with exceptions for religious or political events.

Since Little’s last news conference, Idaho has struggled to keep up with the growth in coronavirus cases. New records for cases, positivity rates and single-day deaths have taken place in the past month.

Statewide, 1,125 Idahoans have died of COVID-19-related causes since the pandemic reached Idaho.

Shortly before the news conference, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in Idaho for the month of November, according to preliminary data collected by the department. The virus is the third-leading cause of death in Idaho from January through November of 2020.

In addition to Idaho’s coronavirus cases and deaths growing over the past month, an increasing number of incidents have led to local politicization of the pandemic.

On Nov. 17, the Southwest District Health board allowed two anti-mask conspiracy theorists to address the board and present false information on COVID-19, vaccines and masks as if it were fact. One such speaker told the board that Idaho is “a victim of a very sophisticated psy-ops, psychological warfare.”

In late November, a Bonner County commissioner threatened to defund the Panhandle Health District after the district enacted a mask mandate to curb the spread of the virus, though that effort was later abandoned.

Most recently, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Boise-based Central District Health while district board members attempted to discuss a public health order. The meeting was ended shortly after it began, as Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee requested the meeting end out of safety concerns.

Because the meeting was ended, the board never voted on the public health order, which could have mandated masks in Boise and Elmore counties in addition to existing mandates in Ada and Valley counties.

The following day, Lee announced three arrest warrants were issued in connection with protests that took place outside of board members’ homes, including that of Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. The commissioner abruptly left the virtual meeting after she received a call from one of her children, who told his mother there were protesters causing a disturbance outside their home.

Lachiondo issued a response in a Facebook post, calling on Little to “act boldly and with conviction,” and do what’s necessary to limit the coronavirus spread. She also called on other Republican leaders who have “politicized public health, who have amplified rhetoric, capitalized on it, tacitly endorsed it while holding hands with the most extreme factions in their party: take a hard look at what you’ve become. It’s far past time to do better.”

Little, as well as other elected officials from around Idaho, condemned the protests at public officials’ homes through public statements.