Shoshone moves to 'substantial' COVID-19 risk category

Shoshone County has joined neighboring Kootenai and Bonner counties in the "substantial" or "red" COVID-19 risk level as of Thursday.

Panhandle Health District reports that as of Thursday, Shoshone has 46 active COVID cases — 13 of which were diagnosed on Wednesday. Shoshone also reports a total of 20 COVID related deaths, 15 of them coming from a nursing home in Kellogg and all but one affecting people over the age of 60.

PHD explains that each Thursday, a team of PHD staff and a representative from Kootenai Health meet to determine the county risk categories for our district based on our Regional Gating Plan.

"We do this to determine where each county is currently in terms of community transmission," PHD Public Information Officer Katherine Hoyer states.

The county risk categories are determined using three key metrics, including:

• Positivity Rate: The percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are positive (positive tests)/(total tests) x 100%.

• Hospitalizations: As of today, Kootenai Health is reporting that they have 41 inpatients with COVID-19, of those 13 are in critical care. In the Spokane area, they have 64 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, of those 19 are in critical care. Kootenai Health has been operating at 90+% capacity for two weeks now, they have medical staff out due to illness, and have been unable to fill open positions for traveling nurses.

• 7-day Incidence Rate (IR): New cases, per day, per county. We look at the 7-day incidence of these cases in each county, so we can determine a trend instead of a dip or spike due to one day's worth of cases.

Overall, PHD1 is in the red risk category, meaning we have substantial community spread. Today, we also determined each county’s risk category:

Kootenai — RED (7-day IR = 49.8)

Shoshone — RED (7-day IR = 39.9)

Boundary — RED (7-day IR = 57.2)

Bonner — ORANGE (7-day IR = 14.1)

Benewah — ORANGE (7-day IR = 15.4)

Regardless of the risk level throughout the remainder of the pandemic, everyone is asked to do the following:

• Stay home if you are sick.

• Maintain physical distance of 6 feet from others.

• Wear face coverings while at work and in public.

• Wash hands frequently for at least 20 seconds.

“All we have are these non-pharmaceutical preventive behaviors to keep ourselves and others safe,” Hoyer said. “There is not a vaccine yet for COVID-19 and treatment is limited, so let’s do what we can to keep our businesses open, children in school, and our health care facilities functioning.”

A full list of recommendations for the general public, for all risk levels can be found in PHD’s regional gating criteria plan.

If you have questions about COVID-19 in the panhandle, call PHD’s COVID-19 hotline Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 877-415-5225.