BOISE, Idaho — The coronavirus has been particularly deadly for Idaho’s elderly population, with 58 of the 60 reported deaths occurring in individuals 60 or older.
Cases of COVID-19 have resulted in the deaths of 38 Idahoans over the age of 80 (63.3% of the state’s total) and claimed another 12 lives of patients in their 70s and eight in their 60s. The remaining two deaths occurred in patients in their 50s, according to information collected by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Deaths are heavily concentrated in the oldest age groups across the West, too.
People 80 or older account for 53% of the deaths in Washington, 48.5% of the deaths in Oregon and 52.8% of the deaths in Colorado. That’s a total of about 826 deaths of people over the age of 80 — or 52.6% of the deaths in those three states.
The percentages get much higher at 60-plus — 91% in Washington, 93.9% in Oregon and 91% in Colorado.
California and Arizona categorize their deaths in broader age groups. California reports that 77.6% of its deaths occurred in people who were 65 or older, and Arizona reports that 76.1% were 65 or older.
The other five Western states don’t have age breakdowns on their coronavirus-tracking websites.
Case fatality rates in the West ranged from 1% in Utah to 5.6% in Washington through Monday. Idaho’s is about 3.1%.
IDHW also has gathered race and ethnicity data for the majority of Idaho’s coronavirus-related deaths. Out of the 57 deaths with race information, 94.7% have been white (54 cases), 3.5% Asian/Pacific Islander (2 cases) and 1.8% black (1 case). For the 58 patients with known ethnicity, 94.8% have been Non-Hispanic (55 cases) and 5.2% Hispanic (3 cases).
By gender, 33 fatalities have been male and 27 female.
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