Local health care officials shared concern over rising COVID-19 cases across the Treasure Valley as Idaho hit a record number of new cases Tuesday.
The Nampa Chamber of Commerce hosted a virtual meeting Wednesday morning where officials from Southwest District Health, St. Luke’s Health System and Saint Alphonsus Medical Center gave an update on the pandemic and how local hospitals are handling the situation.
The Idaho Pres reports the state hit another new daily case record of 448 on Tuesday, which included some late Monday numbers, followed by 430 on Wednesday, the second-highest one-day total.
The state’s total case count reached 8,969 Wednesday. Of those, 17% are in Canyon County, which has the second-highest rate of new cases per week behind Ada County.
Southwest District Health Director Nikki Zogg said she is seeing about 100 news cases a day across the six counties in the district, most of which are from Canyon County. Zogg said there is “a lot of community spread” in Canyon County, with many of the cases traced back to public exposure such as family gatherings or work.
Saint Alphonsus President Travis Leach said Saint Al’s is testing about 800 people per day at its two Treasure Valley testing sites, and recently he has seen a significant increase in positive test results. About three weeks ago Leach said Saint Al’s was seeing about 3.4% of the 800 tests return positive, and lately that percentage has increased to about 15.5%.
Saint Al’s announced Wednesday that because of limited testing capabilities, it will prioritize testing based on greatest medical needs and severity of symptoms.
St. Luke’s Health System, which averages 800 to 1,200 tests a day, also prioritizes testing and only offers tests for patients without symptoms on a limited basis.
Are hospitals nearing capacity?
St. Luke’s Dr. Michaela Schulte described the capacity at St. Luke’s hospitals as “adequate,” but said St. Luke’s recently topped the record number of patients hospitalized during the pandemic. She said the Nampa hospital has 13 coronavirus patients, the Meridian hospital has 14 and the Boise hospital has nine.
While St. Luke’s capacity is fine currently, Schulte said she is concerned for the future.
“Looking at how this tide is building up, I can tell you I am very nervous,” she said.
Saint Alphonsus Dr. Darin Lee said Saint Al’s is at a similar point. He’s concerned that if the COVID-19 hospitalizations get high enough, other patients might need to postpone elective surgeries. Lee said people should not hold off on elective procedures yet, however.
What is the state of local emergency rooms?
Lee said Saint Al’s emergency departments are seeing a lot of patients from varying demographics, particularly an increase in younger patients. He said the Hispanic community has been hit extremely hard, with multiple people from the same household needing care. According to state data, nearly 35% of COVID-19 cases with known ethnicity in Idaho are Hispanic; ethnicity is not reported, however, with nearly half of the state’s total cases.
Lee said he is also concerned about the number of patients going to emergency rooms from work. Several of the patients he’s talked to said they work multiple jobs and “finally got sick enough” to get checked out. He said those patients also commonly report that their coworkers are also exhibiting symptoms and still going to work.
What can businesses do to stay safe?
Saint Alphonsus President Travis Leach said the most important thing businesses should do is require face masks. As many people with COVID-19 can go days without showing symptoms, he said masks go a long way in protecting others.
“It really, really matters,” Leach said.
Aside from masks, he said it is also important for people to wash their hands and socially distance. Leach said keeping six feet apart is the minimum length of social distancing.
“We prefer 10 or more,” Leach said.
Leach said it is also important that businesses make sure their employees are healthy by providing screenings to make sure employees aren’t showing symptoms.
Are antibody tests a viable option?
Schulte said antibody tests results are not reliable and are not worth people’s money. She said most respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 do not give patients an immune response afterward, so someone who has the antibodies could have some degree of immunity, but it is difficult to determine how long it could last.
Can hospitals accommodate Idaho inmates in need of care?
Schulte said though it would be difficult to treat infected inmates given the increasing demand for care of COVID-19 patients, St. Luke’s hospitals would accommodate them. She said St. Luke’s officials have been developing a plan for such a situation.
“It would be a strain,” Schulte said.
Lee said Saint Al’s emergency departments already care for prison patients and can continue to do so. He also said that it is possible to provide decent health care in prison facilities, but jails are a different story. Lee said one of the most important factors is enforcing social distancing.
