STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Hunger Coalition and Senior Connection have each received $9,000 grants from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund for Idaho.

The Hunger Coalition will use its to assist its COVID-19 emergency response, which includes curbside food distribution three times weekly and home deliveries to vulnerable people.

The Senior Connection will use its for its Meals on Wheels program, which expanded greatly to serve seniors who have been instructed to limit excursions to supermarkets and restaurants.

The grants were part of $200,000 in grants from the fund that went to community organizations throughout the state to help low-income individuals and families experiencing homelessness or housing instability, food insecurity and/or domestic violence, along with those needing physical or mental health care and child care.

Others in South-Central Idaho receiving grants included the Minidoka County Senior Center and the Twin Falls Senior Citizens Federation for their Meals on Wheels, as well as the Wema Emergency Food Pantry.

The fund received significant support from foundations, companies and individuals throughout Idaho, including Micron Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation and Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health. Partners included the Idaho Community Foundation and various united Ways.

FREE FISHING

Today’s Free Fishing Day—anyone can enjoy a day of fishing without a fishing license provided they exercise social distancing on the river.

But Idaho Fish and Game employees will not bring fishing gear to fishing spots and loan rods and reels this year because of COVID-19.

Idaho offers thousands of places to fish for a variety of species ranging from bluegill to 9-foot sturgeon. Fish and Game stocks 30 million fish each year, including trout, salmon and steelhead that will head to the ocean and later return as adults.

Basic rods and real combos cost about $25 and the only tackle you need to start out is a few hooks weights, bobber and bait. It’s tough to beat live worms for bait because nearly all fish will eat them.

CORONAVIRUS PASSES OVER BLAINE COUNTY

Idaho reported 51 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday—the state’s had 3,353 cases since the corona-crud began spreading in mid-March.

Blaine County remains at 515 cases for the third day in a row.

WHAT? NO ELBOW BUMPS?!

Yup, even elbow bumps are a no-no now.

The Centers for Disease Control has finally published tips for minimizing COVID-19 risk. And one of the tips is to avoid handshakes, high fives—even the elbow bumps that became ubiquitous in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

The other tips are probably things we already know.

Hold parties outside, rather than inside. Use stairs, rather than elevators. Avoid traveling--staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others. And limit the number of people you interact with, as interacting with more people raises your risk.

OREGON PAUSES

Oregon has put a seven-day pause on reopening plans due to a spike in new coronavirus cases. The state had 178 new cases reported Thursday—its highest total ever. It had 620 new cases last week. The cases are spread throughout the state, not concentrated in one or two areas.

The state of Utah has also paused its reopening plans amidst a spike in cases.

FROM THE TOILET TO THE FORECASTERS

Raw sewage may be the best tool we have right now in the effort to keep tabs on the coronavirus. Utah officials say a pilot project checking for coronavirus in wastewater helped detect a big viral surge in Hyrum’s and Logan’s wastewater the week before Cache Valley’s COVID-19 caseload exploded.

That enabled officials to prioritize limited resources, such as mobile testing. Nearly 300 workers at a beef plant in Hyrum tested positive, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

The highest viral loads were found in urban areas; smaller areas, such as Price and Tremonton, barely registered. Tourists communities, such as Park City, however, showed higher concentrations per capita of the virus than other areas of similar density and size.

The project is being conducted by the University of Utah, Brigham Young, Utah State University and the Utah Department of Health. A similar project started a few weeks ago in Boise.

Researchers are testing whether blood plasma donated by COVID-19 survivors can be used on newly exposed to prevent infection. Johns Hopkins University and other researchers are testing health care workers, spouses of the sick and residents of nursing homes.

IF YOU HAVE A POLIO VACCINE….

Researchers are trying to determine if something like a polio vaccine might help against the coronavirus. There is plenty of evidence that existing inoculations, such as polio vaccines, protect children against a wide range of infections, researchers wrote in this week’s Science magazine.

They point out that both the poliovirus and coronavirus are positive-strand RNA viruses; therefore, they may have common innate immunity mechanisms. The oral polio vaccine produces herd immunity, meaning 70 percent to 90 percent of a population becomes immune to an infectious disease.

Measles and smallpox vaccines also produce protective effects against more than the germs they target, the article says.