COVID-19: One year later
It was on March 11, 2020, that the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. It was only four days later that the Idaho Panhandle saw its first confirmed case of the virus.
Since that time, the Panhandle Health District has attributed 275 deaths within the five northern counties to COVID-19.
Looking back now, PHD Public Information Officer Katherine Hoyer believes that nothing is perfect and that there is always room for improvement, but overall, she is incredibly proud of the work PHD has done in the last year. This especially applies to those early days where not much was known about the virus.
"Even before we had our first case in our district, we were working around the clock to try and learn things," she said. "All of Idaho was at a tense level. The anticipation of which district was going to have its first case and when would PHD's cases start rising."
One factor that worked in favor of PHD and Idaho as a whole was its delayed introduction to COVID-19 compared to other states. Part of the reason for this was the rural nature of the state.
Once cases started coming in though, Hoyer highlighted three different arms of PHD that did exceptional work. The first being the creation of PHD's COVID information line.
"Us setting up an informational call center that people could reach us at changed the course of things," she said. "People being able to reach us was very important and being able to ask us any question."
While the idea was solid, the center needed the right people to run it.
"They're truly some of the kindest individuals that were taking phone calls from people who ranged from curious or scared, to down right nasty, sometimes. Our call center operators have handled that with so much grace," she said.
Next, Hoyer acknowledged the hard work of the epidemiologist contact tracing team- individuals responsible for tracking virus progression and checking in on the sick.
"I know that the public did not completely understand what contact tracing was, but it is a practice that has been used in public health for decades," Hoyer said. "What isn't out there is that our contact tracing team talks to these people everyday and then they also have to realize that some of these people that they have been talking to for the past two weeks have passed away and that is hard on that team."
Lastly, Hoyer noted the mostly smooth rollout of the vaccines that they had been provided by the state.
While she wishes that things were handled a bit differently in the beginning in regard to clinic set-up, PHD has been efficient in getting inoculations out to the public.
"We've done a good job getting through the vaccine supply that we have been sent," she said.
Locally in Shoshone County, PHD reports that there has been a total of 954 confirmed COVID cases and 32 deaths — all but one being at or over the age of 60.
Shoshone County Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald explained that overall, residents responded to the event well.
"It was good to see that our leadership, businesses, and residents responded in a proactive manner that took concern for the protection of human health," he said. "Wallace enacted a resolution. Kellogg approved an ordinance. Government offices implemented policies; Local businesses took positive actions. And, our community educated themselves on the issues and took that knowledge forward into their daily lives."
With a situation such as this though, people can do all the right things and still experience tragedy.
"Unfortunately, even with the best intentions and actions, outcomes are not always positive," he added. "To those who became ill, and in the worst — experienced a loss, our community has a place in which they will always be wished well and remembered."
Speaking of the city of Kellogg and its mask ordinance, the city council once again renewed the legislation at Wednesday night's meeting. Kellogg was the first city in the five northern counties to pass a mask mandate in July of last year that actually had repercussions for not following it.
Mayor Mac Pooler, who was an early proponent of mask usage and supporter of the ordinance, said that in the early days of the pandemic, the unknowns were what scared him most.
"When it all started out, as a mayor or city official, you're trying to keep up with what's going on through the state and how you are going to handle a situation that was threatening people's lives," he said. "You had no idea how long it was going to be or if they could even get a vaccine, so you're reaching and grasping to justify your decisions."
As case numbers continued to rise around Shoshone County, Pooler and local medical professionals knew it was only a matter of time before that domino fell. When it finally did in early July with the first official case being confirmed and then in late July when the first death was announced, Pooler knew Kellogg needed to take action.
"We had to do something," he said. "When you're in charge of the city, you have enough heartaches with the dog catchers and spilled garbage, but when you start looking around and people are dying in your community and the CDC says you can do something — you do it," he said.
Looking forward, Shoshone County currently has multiple providers and businesses that are providing COVID-19 vaccines including Heritage Health, PHD, Walmart and Yoke's.
To schedule an appointment with PHD, visit www.panhandlehealthdistrict.org/covid-19/vaccine/. For Heritage Health, call 208-783-1267. For Walmart, call the pharmacy at 208-783-2739. For Yoke's, that just received the new single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, call the pharmacy at 208-783-0920.
