BOISE, Idaho — Primary Health Medical Group is seeing a record number of patients getting tested for coronavirus, as well as a record number of positive cases.
Dr. David Peterman is the CEO of the urgent care and family medicine facilities, he told KTVB, on a daily basis, more than 500 people are requesting to be tested at Primary Health in Ada and Canyon counties, and 80-to-100 of those tests a day are coming back positive.
“That’s worrisome,” he said.
He adds, the data is based on what Primary Health has been seeing in the last two weeks, but particularly the last five to six days.
“The positivity rate based on our data for both Ada and Canyon county combined is over 20%," Peterman said. "A community, in a sense, is safe when the positivity rate is less than 5%, we have not seen this high of a positivity rate in the whole history of the coronavirus here at Primary Health in Ada and Canyon County.”
He adds on Nov. 1, the White House Task Force released their information on all of the states and the positivity rate of Idaho was second in the nation. Peterman told KTVB that this means that COVID-19 is very prevalent in the community and can be best described as out of control.
He said the community needs to take steps to stop the spread and that starts with people wearing their mask.
To put this into perspective, Idaho’s positivity rate stands at 14%, but this is based on the statewide data for the week of Oct. 24 to 28. The latest numbers for the state are expected out on Thursday.