‘All hands on deck,’ but Little goes a month between Idaho COVID-19 press conferences
Three weeks ago, Idaho Gov. Brad Little moved the state into a modified Stage 2 of reopening as the state’s coronavirus crisis worsened.
During that Nov. 13 announcement, he said he and his office needed to do a better job of communicating and urging the safety precautions that must be taken to prevent a health care catastrophe in the state.
“We are going to do all we can to ramp up public information outreach awareness of all the people of Idaho,” Little said then.
On Thursday, nearly three weeks later, the governor appeared at a Saint Alphonsus urgent care clinic in Meridian to talk about the role of the Idaho National Guard members he activated to assist at medical facilities. His next official coronavirus news conference is not scheduled to happen until next week, his office said — close to a month after his Stage 2 directive.
In the meantime, Idaho’s situation has only worsened. The daily case count has produced record after record, and the health care system has become more taxed. The Gem State added a single-day record 35 new deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, pushing the statewide total past 1,000. And the number of confirmed cases on Wednesday alone exceeded 1,000 once more.
Little said he met with health officials earlier in the week and said “numbers are going in both directions,” though the latest grading criteria for Nov. 13 - Dec. 1 shows dozens of new hospitalizations and ICU admissions. The only number shown with a downward trend was in new cases reported, though that grading criteria includes a notable drop because of Thanksgiving, with the days before and after showing high numbers.
When asked about a delay between news conferences, Little on Thursday touted the state’s ONE Idaho ads and presence of online outreach concerning the virus, pushing the need to wear masks, practice good hygiene and social distancing, and take COVID-19 seriously.
“We had a ... respiratory nurse that’s up now on a ONE Idaho ad. We’ve got some people from, I think it’s Eastern Idaho, there was a young, healthy 40-year-old that was very, very sick, and he’s making his case about how important it is” to wear a facial covering and take the proper precautions, said Little, who has resisted a statewide mask mandate and has left tougher restrictions to local health districts and municipalities.
“... This is an all hands on deck. It’s our ONE Idaho plan, it’s the health care providers, it’s the hospitals, it’s the carriers. Everybody’s trying to get the message out.
“ ... I got some of my criteria that we looked at, and some of the numbers are going up and some of the numbers were going down. We’re gonna have a press conference next week.”
At Thursday’s event, Tami Schaller, executive director of nursing for Saint Alphonsus Medical Group, said the Guard members helping medical professionals are doing triage and helping with patient intake, including collecting vital signs and demographic information.
“And then we’ve also trained (them) to work in our lab to do our point-of-care testing,” she said.
Little said the role of the Guard can change as needed. “We’re just logistically trying to anticipate whatever the next need is,” the governor said.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 5:33 PM.
