Central District Health board OKs Ada nursing home visits; 2 arrested outside meeting
Members of the Central District Health board voted unanimously Tuesday night to begin allowing visits to long-term care facilities in Ada County, on a day that Idaho again broke records for newly reported coronavirus cases.
Under the new order, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in Ada County can begin accepting visitors again — as long as the facilities meet a set of safety parameters. Ada County is the only county in the health district still in Stage 3 of the state’s four-stage reopening plan, so nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in the county have not allowed visitors since the statewide shutdown in March.
“There’s a lot of families that have been affected by the order,” said Russ Duke, the director of Central District Health. “That is the most vulnerable population, starting at the beginning of the pandemic, and remains the most vulnerable population today.”
The new guidelines — based on federal guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — require Ada County facilities to screen visitors for COVID-19 symptoms and deny entry to anyone who shows signs of the disease, or who fails to wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines. Facilities are supposed to prioritize outdoor visits, but they can allow indoor visits if there has been no new onset of cases in the past 14 days among staff or residents, and the facility is not currently conducting outbreak testing. The number of visitors and the length of time they can stay may also be restricted.
If Ada County’s coronavirus positivity rate surpasses 10% — for Oct. 5-11, it was around 6.8% — the order recommends that facilities again restrict visits only to “compassionate care situations.” An example of that would be relatives being allowed to visit a dying family member.
There were 151 new cases reported in Ada County on Tuesday — the most since Aug. 15.
At least 290 of Idaho’s coronavirus deaths have been linked to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, according to last Friday’s weekly update from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. As of Oct. 16, there were 1,812 active coronavirus cases at 90 facilities across the state.
Visits to the Ada County Jail and the state’s correctional facilities are still prohibited amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The board declined to take any action on school district restrictions or athletic activities, although Dr. Ted Epperly warned that the likelihood of high rates of asymptomatic spread among school-age children made it much more difficult to contact-trace outbreaks in local schools or properly assess how those outbreaks contributed to overall community spread.
“We have no clue what we’re really in for here, with all the schools continuing in person,” Epperly said. “It just becomes a total, chaotic quagmire.”
Two arrested for trespassing after trying to enter without masks
While health board members discussed new nursing home visitation rules and the risk of coronavirus spread in schools, a small group of people tried to attend the meeting in person without wearing masks.
The publicly posted agenda for the Central District Health board meeting warned that there would be “no exceptions” to the mask requirement for guests who wanted to attend in person. Two conference rooms with a total of 17 seats were set aside for members of the public, provided they wore masks and followed social distancing requirements.
Disruptions at the entrance to the meeting room, caused by people trying to attend without masks, briefly pulled Duke away from the meeting while he consulted with security personnel, and police were called. Facebook Live videos streamed by Health Freedom Idaho showed Boise police officers physically blocking the entrance to the meeting room, while protesters argued for their right to enter without a mask and waved signs, one of which read “We The People Did Not Elect C.D.H.” (The Central District Health Board is populated with appointed members from the medical community and one elected official from each county in the district).
Eventually, two protesters were arrested on charges of misdemeanor trespassing, according to the Boise Police Department.
“Central District Health trespassed two subjects from their meeting,” BPD wrote in a 6:14 p.m. tweet. “Boise Police officers attempted to gain voluntary compliance and the subjects refused. Others chose to take the opportunity to leave. Two people were arrested for misdemeanor trespassing.”
The next Central District Health meeting is set for Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 5:15 p.m.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 9:11 PM.
