Shoshone remains in 'Substantial' COVID Risk Level

KELLOGG — With new variants of the COVID-19 virus making its way to North Idaho, case rates and related hospitalization are once again on the rise in the Panhandle Health District (PHD) area.

For Shoshone County, PHD decided once again Thursday to keep the area in the highest COVID-19 risk level of Substantial (red) for the third week in a row.

Substantial Risk implies that Shoshone is currently seeing greater than 30 reported daily cases per 100,000 in the population over a seven-day rolling average, reporting a positivity rate greater than 20%, and hospital capacity being at or above 100%.

"Overall, the numbers of Shoshone are small, but the trend has gone from basically 0 to actually seeing some cases show up again," said Shoshone Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Lawhorn.

As of Aug. 5, PHD reports that there are 86 active COVID-19 cases in Shoshone County with 24 being reported within the month of August. There have been 38 total COVID related deaths in Shoshone with seven occurring in 2021.

Gov. Brad Little recently called on Idaho residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“Simply put, we need more Idahoans to choose to receive the vaccine if our kids have a chance at a normal school year,” he said Tuesday during a Department of Health and Welfare media briefing about COVID-19.

Both Dr. Lawhorn and Kootenai Health Chief of Staff Robert Scoggins stress that the majority of patients in the ICU unit with COVID-19 have not been fully vaccinated.

Kootenai Health is the COVID treatment hub for the area.

“If more people were vaccinated, we wouldn’t be in this position that we’re in right now,” Scoggins said during a phone interview with The Press. “It’s very clear to those of us that take care of COVID patients this really is a lack of vaccination.”

According to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, 38% of the population within the PHD are fully vaccinated. In Shoshone County, 37% of the population are fully vaccinated, with another 3% having at least one dose.

IDHW Director Dave Jeppesen said the delta variant is the dominant version of the virus infecting Idahoans. Idaho has more than 200,000 coronavirus cases.

He said health officials are worried about what will happen when cold weather settles in come fall, kids return to school and people stay indoors.

The vaccine is the way to end the pandemic, Jeppesen said.

“We know the vaccines are safe and very effective,” he added.

Dr. Christopher Ball, chief of the Idaho Bureau of Laboratories, said the state has seen a “very big switch in a very short period of time” as the delta variant has spread.

“We can certainly say the delta variant is widely circulating in Idaho right now,” she said.

Dr. Kathryn Turner, deputy state epidemiologist, said the delta variant spreads faster and more easily than previous versions of the virus. But she said the good news is that current authorized vaccines offer protection against it.

Turner said the 0-11 age group is Idaho’s most vulnerable population “because there is no vaccination for them."

Turner said the number of cases of children up to 4 years old has increased 200% in the past two weeks, and infections are doubling in kids ages 5 to 12. New coronavirus cases of teens have increased “substantially," she said.

“It does worry me," Turner said.

Scoggins said KH has been busy and will continue to have a COVID-19 unit.

“COVID-19 is not going away,” he said.

He said Kootenai Health is seeing younger patients — in their 30s, 40s and 50s — with the coronavirus than before when they were nearly all 60 or older.

Scoggins said while the current vaccines are still effective, Pfizer and Moderna are working on booster shots for the delta variant.

When asked if officials shouldn’t be promoting diet and exercise to improve health and strengthen immune systems, rather than calling on people to wear masks and take vaccines, Scoggins said that Koootenai Health was seeing an increase in healthy, younger people with the virus.

The coronavirus “does not seem to care if you’re young and healthy," he said.

“I think being healthy is great, but being vaccinated and having some immunity to stop the virus is much better,” he said.