While people return to crowded restaurants and unmask in public, COVID-19 rates are back on the rise with Latah County remaining high-risk for transmission according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As questions arise on whether the high-risk classification is accurate for the county, Mike Larson, division administrator at Public Health – Idaho North Central District, clarifies that he agrees with the CDC’s judgment.
“I have no doubt that those numbers are correct,” Larson said.
Idaho has been seeing an alarming increase in cases, with 1,032 new cases being reported on Aug. 24.
“We’ve been seeing a real significant increase,” Larson said. “(The graph) is just as steep, if not steeper, as it was last year before we hit our peak.”
This significant increase could dwarf what Idaho saw last year.
“If we don’t have increased vaccinations, we are probably going to see real significant increases in cases,” Larson said.
From the models Larson has seen, the state could be hitting a new peak as early as the beginning of October. He emphasized that we may not only meet the previous COVID-19 high, but surpass it.
According to Marketing Content Manager Brad Gary, Gritman Medical Center had previously stopped reporting COVID-19 numbers on their website due to lower case numbers. Just in the past week, they have begun releasing these numbers again, with COVID-19 rates on the rise.
“Due to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation in our state and region, we are restarting our weekly hospitalization and test positivity reports,” the hospital’s press release stated. “The dramatic rise of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, particularly among the unvaccinated, is concerning at the national, state and regional level.”
Last updated Aug. 18, Gritman had seen 100 positive COVID-19 tests in two weeks. From Aug. 11-18, the hospital admitted four COVID-19 patients.
The Delta variant is easier to pass from person to person and may be more infectious than other strands, though research is still to be done. Higher hospitalization rates and spread to younger children could be attributed to more aggressive symptoms, Larson suggested.
“With people that are vaccinated that are becoming ill with the Delta variant, it’s now recognized that not only are they more sick (than non-Delta cases), they are also more likely to be infectious,” Larson said.
John Brown is the chief medical doctor at Gritman. He noted the differences in symptoms for those who had already been vaccinated before catching the variant.
“Being immunized does seem to have a significant protective effect from getting a serious enough infection to be hospitalized or die,” Brown said.
Testing for the Delta variant is difficult to do on a local level, so specimens are being sent to state laboratories. Treatment for different variants is also not different, making it less of a testing priority among hospitals.
As of Aug. 24, Idaho has confirmed 225 delta cases, though some positive COVID-19 cases may not have been tested for strand type due to testing capabilities.
“The main concern is costs of an increased number of cases and fatalities,” Brown said. “It can overwhelm our medical facility pretty easily … It doesn’t take a whole lot to fill up.”
New variants spreading even more rapidly, spread throughout the hospital is also a concern.
“If we get a dozen or half a dozen staff members infected- that’s a huge part of our workforce,” Brown said.
With other facilities filling up due to COVID-19, it can become a domino effect impacting all hospitals when transferring patients. However, Gary clarified that they have not needed a change in hospital protocols recently with the increase of cases.
“We’re treating patients for COVID-19 on a regular basis, like other ailments,” Gary said. “But we haven’t had to give up on any of our other treatments.”
The state has seen an increase in COVID-19 hospitalization rates with the number of ICU patients having doubled since the beginning of August according to the state dashboard.
Idaho’s vaccination rate remains at a low 48% of the population. It’s worth noting this does not include the state’s 12-plus population.
With the state not achieving herd immunity, an unanswered question remains; what would the situation of COVID-19 look like if more Idahoans were vaccinated?
“That’s the $100 question,” Brown said. “More highly vaccinated communities have less spread and less severe illnesses and deaths. We know that places with a high percentage of the population vaccinated are having fewer problems with overwhelming their facilities.”
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq