This was one of the key indicators that led to Idaho’s statewide stay-home order
Idaho public health officials weren’t just watching the coronavirus testing data to determine how serious of a problem Idaho faced with the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
They also watched hospitals — and the situation there worsened in recent days.
That was one of the key takeaways from Thursday night’s appearance on Idaho Public Television by Gov. Brad Little; Dave Jeppesen, the director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare; and Christine Hahn, the state’s head epidemiologist.
Little issued a statewide, 21-day stay-home order Wednesday.
“We monitor data in emergency rooms, and for weeks now we’ve been monitoring respiratory conditions,” Jeppesen told IPTV host Melissa Davlin. “… It’s been fairly steady — some days zero, very flat. And just two or three days ago, that line started to take off. And that for us was a big sign across the state that we have reached a tipping point.”
Idaho has seen a significant increase in COVID-19 diagnoses this week, with 138 positive tests reported by health districts in the past four days for a total of 188 in the past two weeks.
But there was little sign of the severity of those illnesses until Thursday, when Health and Welfare revealed that three deaths have been attributed to the coronavirus. Of the 50-plus cases for which health districts have released details, only five included hospitalization.
Health and Welfare told the Idaho Stateman on Thursday that 18 of the first 100 coronavirus patients for which it had information were hospitalized at some point.
Other notes from the IPTV program:
▪ Mortality rate: The state has been told to expect a mortality rate of about 1.5%, Hahn said. That’s about where Idaho is at this point with three deaths and 188 cases. “It doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way,” Hahn said. She hopes that as people take more precautions to protect seniors, that number might drop. All three of Idaho’s deaths were in men 60 or older.
▪ Testing capacity: The state lab is running about 160 tests a day, Jeppesen said — up from 12-15 per day in January. “That’s where the high-risk tests are going, so if you have an in-patient person or a health care worker, we want to know, really quickly, if they’re infected,” he said. State tests are free and can be processed within a day, whereas others have to be sent to private labs. The state lab has processed 1,276 tests. “But that’s not nearly enough,” Jeppesen said. In some cases, he said, the wait was so long for private results that people had recovered from COVID-19 before they got confirmation that they had it. “That’s not where we want to be,” he said, “but we’re seeing improvement in the turnaround time.”
▪ More cases on the way: One local hospital told Jeppesen on Thursday afternoon that it was waiting for results on about 3,000 tests from private labs — which is more than the total that have been returned statewide so far (2,857). “That testing volume is starting to grow, and that’s a good thing,” Jeppesen said. “It’s not where we want it to be, but it’s getting better. And we should expect that to reveal more cases.” At the current rate of positives, those outstanding tests would roughly double the state’s case count.
▪ On President Trump’s promise: Little said one reason people are turned away from testing is because of the personal protective equipment used by the health care providers, which is in short supply nationwide. “Until we get more capacity, until we get more personal protective equipment, not everybody can get tested,” Little said, “and we want that message to get out because early on there was a statement that if you want to get tested, you can … .” Davlin reminded Little, a Republican, that the quote was from President Donald Trump. “That’s a true story,” Little said, “and … it did exacerbate the work that we were trying to do.”
▪ About those liquor stores: Liquor stores remain open within the “essential” businesses and services exemptions in the stay-home order. For the second time this week, Little struggled to explain why. “The states that didn’t put in liquor stores are now all putting them back in,” he said. “… I wouldn’t say it’s groceries. I wouldn’t say it’s essential. But it’s, uh ... .” Little specifically mentioned Pennsylvania as a state that was reopening liquor stores, but there’s been no final decision reported there. Liquor stores have been left open in many states, including New York and Washington. Denver’s mayor recently changed his mind on a closure.
▪ How long will the pandemic affect us? Longer than the stay-home order. “After 21 days,” Little said, “this will not be over. But we will know more. And the intent is to significantly reduce the spread.”
