Southeast Idaho Public Health confirmed 23 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, setting a new record for the most new local cases during a single reporting period.

The new regional infections, which were confirmed during the holiday weekend, included eight new cases in Bannock County, nine in Bingham County, one in Caribou County, three in Franklin County and two in Power County.

There have now been 246 confirmed cases in Southeast Idaho, with 152 of those patients having recovered.

The department said 16 of the cases were female and seven were male. Seven of the cases were 18 years old or younger, 12 were between the ages of 19 and 49 and four were 50 or older. Eight of the cases were considered community transmission, one was travel related, 12 had contact with a confirmed case and two cases are still under investigation. All of the patients are recovering at home.

Southeastern Idaho Public Health officials said they plan to start offering a graphic later this week showing local cases for each day to help the public track the progression.

“We are not headed in the right direction and it is really critical if we want to continue to have things open that people follow the guidance — wash your hands, wear a face mask, keep 6 feet of distance,” said Maggie Mann, director of Southeastern Idaho Public Health. “Those things are going to be with us for the foreseeable future and the better we do at it the better off our community is going to be.”

Statewide, 319 new cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing Idaho’s totals to 8,052 cases and 94 deaths.

Based on the rising trend of cases, officials with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes recently announced they will cancel the 57th Annual Shoshone-Bannock Indian Festival in August. The event is the state’s largest outdoor festival and pow-wow.

In the Treasure Valley, mass testing for COVID-19 in a prison just south of Boise revealed more than 100 inmates have the disease — and none of them are showing symptoms.

The number is the result of mass testing the Idaho Department of Correction implemented on Monday, Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Teewalt wrote in an open letter on the department’s website.

While the new coronavirus has torn through prison populations in other states, the first Idaho inmate didn’t test positive for the illness until last week at the Idaho State Correctional Center. Nor did the department require its employees to wear masks until June 24.

Since then, the number of positive tests has spiked in the cell block where the first inmate tested positive, and the cell block has been quarantined.

On Monday, the department tested 258 inmates on that cell block; none of them were showing symptoms of COVID-19. So far, 103 of them have tested positive, 146 tested negative, and nine tests are pending, Tewalt wrote in his update.

The department tested another 316 people from another cell block, as well as 26 other people who were believed to have come into contact with someone who had the illness. As of Thursday night, the department had received 92 tests back, and all 92 were negative, Tewalt wrote.

“In total, we now have 12 incarcerated individuals who are COVID‐19 positive with symptoms, and 107 asymptomatic positives,” Tewalt wrote.

The new coronavirus has also caused problems for department staff members. More than 100 of them have been directed to quarantine, Tewalt wrote, and because they aren’t displaying symptoms of COVID-19, many can’t get tested.

“We’re going to remedy that starting next week,” Tewalt wrote. “I’m excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Saltzer Health to conduct staff testing events for the S. Boise Complex. The first event will be next Tuesday and Thursday for all ISCC staff. We are working to schedule additional events for the remainder of the complex the following week, and we plan to make these regular events so long as COVID‐19 continues to be actively spreading in the surrounding community.”

A total of 36 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, Tewalt wrote.

By Monday, the department expects to have the results from the mass testing event on the second cell block and, over the course of the next week, department officials plan to conduct mass testing in the remaining parts of the Idaho State Correctional Center.