St. Luke’s Magic Valley resumes admitting children as COVID-19 numbers improve

St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center began admitting children again late Thursday, the first time it has routinely done so since Oct. 25.

The hospital system said in a Facebook post that the change was because it has fewer COVID-19 patients.

The hospital began transferring all pediatric patients who had to be admitted for treatment to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise, 128 miles away from the Twin Falls facility, when COVID cases were climbing in late October.

At the time, nearly a quarter of the more than 119 patients in the hospital were being treated for COVID-19, according to hospital data. That was more than at any previous time.

By the end of November, about half of all patients in the Twin Falls hospital had COVID-19.

By New Year’s Eve, things had changed dramatically, and only 11 of the 101 patients admitted that day were COVID-positive.

The eight-county area covered by the South Central Public Health District has had a 79% decrease in cases since early November, but case numbers remain worse than they were in September, and health officials worry holiday gatherings may lead to another increase in cases.

COVID-19 has now killed 1,450 Idahoans.

So far, 19,119 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, mainly to health care workers. The state expected to get 73,775 doses of the vaccine, but the federal government has been slow to deliver the promised supply, and half of the doses have to be saved for the second shot each person will require.