Idaho officials on omicron surge: ‘We have hit our peak’

Idaho health officials confirmed Tuesday that the state is on the downward slide of daily COVID-19 infections.

“Yes, we have hit our peak,” Dr. Kathryn Turner, deputy state epidemiologist, said during an online media briefing about COVID-19. The weekly forum is sponsored by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

“We were kind of watching the trend to make sure,” Turner added. The daily infections from the omicron variant of COVID-19 peaked during the third and fourth weeks of January, but now the daily case counts are going down, which “aligns exactly with positivity charts,” she said.

But the health officials warned that it does not mean the pandemic is over or that there won’t be future surges.

The hospital situation in the state is “stable, but not good,” said Dave Jeppesen, director of the health and welfare department. Cases and hospitalizations are “still very high.” Jeppesen pointed out that the testing positivity rate last week went from 39% to 34%. That’s still seven times higher than the state testing positivity goal of 5%, he said.

And three health districts in central and southwestern Idaho remain in crisis standards of care, mainly because of staffing shortages and a dearth of supplies, including blood.

“The pandemic is not finished with us yet,” Jeppesen said, “and our dedicated health care workers need our help.”

He emphasized that the best way to do that is for people to get vaccinated and booster shots, to wear masks and to maintain social distancing in public places.

Dr. Christine Hahn, state epidemiologist, also emphasized the need for people to get COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots. Idaho continues to lag behind most of the rest of the country in vaccinations and “we worry that these low numbers leave Idahoans vulnerable to hospitalization and death,” Hahn said. “Some signs are looking better — positivity and case numbers are coming down. But there’s still a lot of disease from omicron, (including) hospitalizations and death.”

Hahn said the unknown about possible future variants also is a worry and that each variant so far has had some different characteristics, including response to the vaccine.

Hahn added: “I absolutely agree, for those people who have made it through a bout of COVID probably have some protection against the variants,” but only partial.

“People that have had COVID would do better if they also go ahead and get the vaccine,” Hahn said. “The two together can be a good step.”

There were 78 new COVID-19 infections reported Tuesday by Public Health – Idaho North Central District, including 16 in Lewis County, 11 in Clearwater County, 10 in Idaho County, nine in Latah County and 26 in Nez Perce County.

Whitman County reported 115 new cases. On Monday, Whitman County reported one death for a total of 87 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. That number was dialed back Tuesday to 86 deaths. Chris Skidmore, director of Whitman County Public Health, explained the death was originally believed to be a resident of the county, but further investigation established the person was from another county and so the death was reassigned.

Asotin County reported 24 new cases for a 14-day count of 405. Garfield County had no updates to its website Tuesday.

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center reported that, as of Monday, there were 10 patients being treated for COVID-19. That’s a decrease from 15 a week ago.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.