COVID-19 found in local nursing homes

Steps being taken to combat outbreak

If anything can be taken from the massive amount of statistics that have been collected regarding COVID-19, it’s that senior citizens are truly the most at risk.

From that national scale to the county scale, data gathered by health organizations across the country show that the vast majority of COVID-19 related deaths have involved those at or over the age of 65.

This fact is all the more disconcerting knowing that the virus has recently found its way into Silver Valley nursing homes.

As of Thursday, both Pacifica Living Center in Pinehurst and Mountain Valley of Cascadia in Kellogg have had multiple residents test positive for COVID-19. The third local care facility, Good Samaritan Society in Silverton, has had only staff members test positive, but it is likely that residents have been exposed as well.

It is unknown at this time how the facilities were exposed.

While Shoshone County was the last panhandle county to report positive cases, it is the only one of that group beside Kootenai (which has a substantially higher population) to report COVID deaths.

PHD reports that Shoshone County has 79 total confirmed cases as of Thursday — 41 of which are active — and two COVID deaths. Both of these individuals were over the age of 65 and one was a resident at Pacifica.

Shoshone Medical Center’s Dr. David Lawhorn has known that it was only a matter of time until the virus made its way to the most “at-risk” of the community. Now that it has, every precaution is being taken to limit the spread in these facilities.

“They are all right now taking extraordinary measures,” Dr. Lawhorn explained. “Extremely tight lockdown. All facilities are doing screenings at the door and being very strict about letting people in.”

In addition to blanket testing to identify the infected as quickly as possible, specific areas in the facilities have been designated for positive residents. These special areas help ensure that positive residents get the extra care they need, while not spreading the virus anymore than it already has.

Steve LaForte, director of Strategic Operations for Cascadia Healthcare, explained to the News-Press that Mountain Valley has already reached out to families of residents and is also reaching out to the community regarding their recent positive tests.

“There are eight residents with confirmed positive cases who are isolated in our COVID only unit, consistent with CDC, CMS and state health care guidance.”

Thankfully, LaForte also said that most of the residents that are positive are asymptomatic.

“We have tested all residents and staff, and while additional results are pending, as of now no staff have tested positive,” he said.

If residents at any facility present extreme symptoms and are in need of intensive care, Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene is still North Idaho’s hub for treating COVID-19 (although, SMC is capable of treating a small number of cases if needed).

Based on the numbers, these precautions are more than necessary.

Thomas Plank with the Idaho Press reported that state officials said 58% of Idaho’s COVID-19 deaths have been linked to long-term care facilities during Tuesday’s AARP telephone conference.

“It’s tragic for the families impacted,” said Dave Jeppesen, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

He added that the state was working with long-term care facilities on creating more robust infection control programs.

Jeppesen said the state was prioritizing long-term care facility COVID-19 tests, by sending those to its state labs, which have a swifter turnaround time than larger national labs.

For more information on “at-risk” COVID numbers, check out our story: https://shoshonenewspress.com/news/2020/jul/21/protecting-those-at-risk-8/