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

This week, those counties and the Gem State still are seeing the virus run rampant as testing struggles continue. So are Bingham County, the cities of Idaho Falls and Blackfoot, and a total of 12 counties and five metro areas around the state, which are all in the red zone.

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That’s according to the newest report from the Task Force, which issues weekly updates to governors across the country on which places in their states have the worst coronavirus situation. Details from the report are not officially made public by the White House but the Center of Public Integrity obtained and published the Aug. 23 report on Idaho, along with several other states. The governor’s office also shared a copy of the report’s findings on Idaho with the Post Register.

The report from Sunday places the entire state in the “red zone,” meaning it had more than 100 new cases for every 100,000 residents last week and had more than 10% of coronavirus test results come back positive. While both numbers had decreased from the week before, the current rates remained high enough for the state to stay at the highest level of concern.

“Sustaining these gains over the next few weeks will be critically important,” the report read.

The test positivity rate is the biggest concern, as the 12.3% of positive test results that Idaho reported last week was the second-highest positive rate in the country.

The report also broke down cases among the counties and cities with enough new cases and positive tests to qualify for their own red zone limitations. Ada, Bingham, Bonneville, Cassia, Canyon, Jefferson, Jerome, Lemhi, Payette, Power, Shoshone and Washington counties were categorized as red zone counties in the report. Another 10 counties hit one of the two measures and fell into the “yellow zone.”

Five metro areas across Idaho fell into the requirements for the red zone during the week of Aug. 15-21: Boise, Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, Burley and Ontario. Six other cities were placed in the “yellow zone” by the task force: Pocatello, Rexburg, Twin Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Mountain Home and Hailey.

The report recommends officials adopt strict public health measures in areas that fall within the red zone measures. Those recommendations include having “all business retailers and personal services require masks and can safely social distance,” prohibiting indoor gatherings of more than 10 people, closing bars and gyms, and increasing the number of contact tracers and surge testing resources for the coronavirus.

Across eastern Idaho, new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have risen sharply over the past two months. At the end of July, the region had seen roughly 1,000 cases, 59 coronavirus hospitalizations and three deaths since the start of the pandemic. Now, it has seen nearly 2,500 cases, 117 hospitalizations and nine deaths.

Eastern Idaho Public Health’s board of county representatives has mandated masks and capped event attendance by venue size in six of eight eastern Idaho counties. But the regional board hasn’t issued event bans as stringent as the White House report calls for.

Health district spokeswoman Mimi Taylor said Tuesday that the health district “feels confident in the COVID-19 Regional Response Plan that was implemented by our Board of Health in July and continues to serve as a fluid document guiding our region’s pandemic response. After much research and consultation with partners, the risk levels, metrics, and mitigation strategies were developed as the regional strategy to achieve the goals of maintaining healthcare capacity, getting our children back to school and remaining in school, avoiding the closure of businesses, and reducing disease, disability, and death of our residents.”

Two weeks ago, the eastern Idaho health board placed five more counties in the so-called moderate risk level, mandating masks and issuing light event restrictions there. The rate of spread in three of those counties has since slowed; the health board will meet 7 a.m. Thursday to discuss lifting the social restrictions in Clark, Fremont and Lemhi counties.More than 10% of coronavirus tests of eastern Idaho residents have, since mid-July, returned positive. That’s well above the 5% that national health experts say indicates most cases are being reported. The latest reporting from EIPH, on Aug. 15, says 19% of tests return positive in eastern Idaho.