With the omicron COVID-19 variant spreading quickly across Idaho, the virus is once again creating challenges for Idahoans nearly two years into the pandemic.

Several school districts around the state have temporarily closed classrooms to students amid spiking COVID-19 cases, including Bonneville Joint School District 93, which closed all of its schools on Friday due to a lack of healthy teachers.

The Caldwell School District also closed its schools on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week because of rising COVID-19 cases among students and staff.

In Southeast Idaho, Pocatello Community Charter School was closed Friday because of multiple confirmed COVID-19 cases resulting in exposures and limited staffing.

The situation is being exacerbated by the fact that Idaho has the worst COVID-19 vaccination rate in the U.S. with only 46 percent of state residents being fully vaccinated. Nationally, about 63 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated.

While the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25 has not yet taken action to close its schools during the current omicron surge, the district said it’s keeping a close eye on what local health officials are calling a record number of COVID-19 cases being reported so far this month throughout Southeast Idaho.

District 25 reported on Friday that there are 29 confirmed COVID-19 cases among its school staff members and 81 cases among the district’s students. Only four schools in the district, all elementary schools, are reporting zero COVID-19 cases.

Courtney Fisher, a spokesperson for the district, said Pocatello-Chubbuck schools are benefiting from pre-planned school closures on Friday and Monday for parent-teacher conferences and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

”Luckily we had planned to be closed on Friday and Monday, so that gives us a little bit of buffer like the schools that have closed are trying to build in right now,” Fisher said. “We’re not closed this week for any COVID-related issues, but we’re monitoring this on a daily basis from multiple angles and watching very closely.”

Pocatello-Chubbuck schools reported an increased number of COVID-19 cases this past week, but Fisher said the number of infections isn’t the highest they’ve seen to date. The worst week for COVID-19 in School District 25 occurred in mid-September of last year when 123 cases were reported.

The School District 25 Board of Trustees, which just welcomed three new members on Tuesday, is expected during its February meeting to look at the district’s roadmap outlining pandemic health safety policies, including masking, and consider making changes.

”Our goal is to keep class in session five days a week,” Fisher said. “Our communities made it very clear that that’s important, so we’re prioritizing that but still monitoring everything very carefully.”

As of Friday, there were close to 2,000 active COVID-19 cases across Southeastern Idaho Public Health’s eight-county region, with 448 of those confirmed on Friday alone. Nearly 1,150 of the current infections are in Bannock County including Pocatello and Chubbuck, while 500 others are in Bingham County, 119 in Franklin County, 63 in Caribou County, 46 in Power County, 36 in Oneida County, 27 in Bear Lake County, and 15 in Butte County.

The increasing number of local infections has also prompted the second consecutive cancellation of the annual Simplot Games at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena in Pocatello, while nationally the pandemic’s surge has caused the American Red Cross to declare a nationwide shortage of donated blood.

The massive uptick in COVID-19 cases triggered by the new omicron variant has even reached the Idaho Legislature.

Since the 2022 Idaho legislative session began Monday, at least two state lawmakers have tested positive for COVID-19. Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking and Rep. John Gannon left the statehouse on Wednesday after confirming that they both contracted the virus.

During the first week of January, Southeast Idaho reported its most cases in a one-week span to date with 908 confirmed COVID-19 infections, though it appears this past week has topped that count after nearly 800 new cases were reported in just two days.

The previous record for most COVID-19 cases in a week in Southeast Idaho was 553 in late November of 2020.

Six people have died of COVID-19 in Southeast Idaho so far this month, a number that’s far short of any record. The most people to die of COVID-19 during a single week in Southeast Idaho is 23, a number that was reached during three separate weeks in the fall of 2021.

In response to the rise in infections and a related demand for coronavirus testing, Southeastern Idaho Public Health announced Friday it’s keeping open the COVID-19 testing site located at 1999 Alvin Ricken Drive in Pocatello on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 17.

Southeastern Idaho Public Health said its safety recommendations remain the same to help prevent the spread of the virus. People should wear a face covering in public places, stay home if they are sick, avoid sick people, practice good hand hygiene, and get vaccinated, Southeastern Idaho Public Health said.