STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
One step forward and two steps back?
That’s how Idaho health officials must be feeling right now.
Health officials said Tuesday that Idaho’s COVID trends are improving. New cases of COVID are down. Test positivity statewide is 6.8 percent—getting closer to the target of under 5 percent. And as of Saturday there were 315 patients hospitalized in Idaho with COVID—easily half of what there was at the peak a month ago.
There were 92 COVID patients in ICU as of Saturday and just short of 70 COVID patients using ventilators.
But the next couple weeks will tell how much of a threat the new Omicron variant will be, Idaho Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen told reporters at Tuesday’s media briefing.
It’s not 100 percent certain that the new variant, which was first detected in South Africa but did not necessarily originate in South Africa, is more transmissible than the Delta variant, said State Epidemiologist Christine Hahn.
The variant has 50 mutations, some of which are unique to Omicron. And that has doctors concerned.
Researchers are trying to determine how well the current COVID-19 vaccines will protect against omicron and how effective monoclonal antibody treatment and other treatments will be with the new variant.
Even if the current COVID vaccines are not as protective against Omicron as earlier variants, they still offer the best protection until there is an updated vaccine, said Hahn.
There will probably be a lag of at least a week before we know the variant is in Idaho, said Christopher Ball, Idaho’s bureau chief and laboratory director.
Ball added that testing for COVID remains important, even though the state’s testing positivity is decreasing as testing increases the state’s ability to monitor what’s happening.
NORTH IDAHO HOSPITALS REMAIN STRESSED
Crisis standards of care remain in place for North Idaho, but the trends there are improving said Jeppesen.
FDA ADVISORS APPROVE MERCK’S COVID PILL
While the press conference was ongoing, news came that FDA advisors had voted 13-10 to recommend emergency use authorization of the Merck COVID-19 pill. The pill, which would be the first oral antiviral treatment to fight COVID, has been shown to reduce the risk of someone with COVID progressing to severe disease or death by about 30 percent.
If the pills are approved by the FDA, Idaho will not likely get a lot of pills initially, Hahn said. The state will allocate them throughout the state and make providers aware of the new option.
BLAINE COUNTY’S RISK FACTOR
Blaine County is in the moderate category when it comes to transmission of COVID. The county is averaging 2.27 new cases a day per 10,000 residents. Its test positivity is 5.34 percent—just above the target of 5 percent.
Most Idaho counties remain in high transmission category, said Jeppesen.