Coronavirus leading killer of Idaho residents in November
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Thursday that residents can expect diminished health care if hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients and the state has to initiate crisis standards of care.
The Republican governor warned of the impending standards during a news conference on the same day health officials announced COVID-19 was the state's leading cause of death in November. Little also said county morgues were asking for mobile refrigerators to hold bodies.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said the illness killed 247 people last month. COVID-19 has killed just over 1,100 residents to date, making it the third leading cause of death in Idaho for the year.
That's about four to five times the number of annual deaths from flu and pneumonia. More than 116,000 residents have been infected. A northern Idaho doctor who took part in the news conference said some of them could face lasting lung damage from the disease.
"This is not like any virus I've ever seen," said Robert Scoggins, a doctor at Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene who specializes in pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine.
Despite the dire warning, Little said he was keeping the state in stage two of his Idaho Rebounds plan, restricting group sizes to 10 or fewer. The limit of 10 people doesn't apply to religious or political gatherings.
Stage two requires masks at long-term care facilities, recommends that at-risk residents self-isolate, and encourages businesses to allow employees to work from home. Bars, nightclubs and restaurants can remain open but patrons must be seated.
Little declined to issue a statewide mask mandate, something health officials have requested to slow the virus' spread. Little has said there would be greater compliance if people chose to wear a mask of their own volition. Many Idaho residents say wearing a mask is an infringement of their freedom.
"I have got to get these numbers under control," Little said. "I've got to get better compliance. I've got to get people choosing to do the right thing so that we can go back and take advantage of this economic prosperity instead of having it diminished by us having to spend extra money on health care, businesses slowing down, and kids being out of school."
Idaho has a projected $630 million budget surplus despite the pandemic, and Little has floated plans for unspecified tax cuts as well as investments in education and roads. But the state's budget has been buoyed by federal coronavirus relief money that's now drying up, including unemployment assistance at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, health officials say Idaho's attempt to hold the coronavirus in check is failing, and hospitals are nearing a point where the state will have to initiate a crisis plan that divides the sick into categories, prioritizing those with life-threatening illnesses or injuries who are expected to survive and giving only comfort care to those who aren't.
"If we can't slow the spread, this situation will affect you personally, whether you have COVID or not," Little said. Heart attack or car-crash victims, for example, might not get treatment.
Little said that besides the surge of patients, hospital workers are getting sick, also potentially limiting how many people can receive treatment.
Idaho's largest hospital system, St. Luke's Health System, announced Thursday it would hold an urgent, drive-through career fair next week in hopes of recruiting additional staffers to help care for COVID-19 patients.
The hospital system is trying to hire housekeepers, food service workers and laundry technicians as well as staffers to help transport patients and customer service workers to help refer patients to clinics.
Scoggins, the doctor at Kootenai Health, said he's concerned his facility won't be able to treat patients, and there won't be anywhere to send them. He's also concerned about the hospital's workers, who have been fighting the disease since spring.
"Our staff is becoming fatigued and burned out," he said.