BOISE, Idaho —
First Idaho child death due to COVID-19 confirmed
An Idaho infant has become the first child in the state to die from COVID-19, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced Tuesday.
The baby died in October in the Southwest Health District, which includes Adams, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, and Washington counties. To protect the privacy of the family, IDHW said additional information about the infant will not be released.
“Our hearts go out to the family of this child,” said Elke Shaw-Tulloch, administrator for the Idaho Division of Public Health. “Infection with the virus can have devastating impacts on families, and this situation highlights the seriousness of COVID-19.”
Serious illness and death from COVID-19 is rarer in children, who make up about 2% of hospitalizations from the virus, officials say. About 900 children nationwide have died from the virus.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was recently approved for children ages 5 to 11, but approval has not yet been extended to babies and children under 5.
New daily COVID-19 case numbers, hospitalizations, test positivity rate continue to drop in Idaho
State health officials said this week that the numbers of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to drop after surging in August and September -- a trend Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen called "very heartening and very encouraging." However, he also said there are reasons to remain concerned.
The 14-day moving average of new daily COVID-19 cases dropped to 693.57 on Wednesday, Nov. 10 -- the first time that average was lower than 700 since August 26.
As for patients with COVID-19 in Idaho hospitals, the count was 399 on Monday, Nov. 8, with 125 of those patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). Those numbers are well below the all-time high of 793 total COVID patients (213 in ICU), reached on Sept. 24, but they are still comparable to hospitalization numbers from the COVID surge of December 2020.
Also, statewide crisis standards of care, activated on Sept. 16, remain in effect.
In the Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare's weekly COVID-19 media briefing on Tuesday, Nov. 9, Jeppesen said Idaho will exit crisis standards "when the surge of patients being driven by COVID-19 no longer exceeds the healthcare resources available." He also said the following things need to happen:
- Hospitals no longer use nontraditional spaces (such as conference rooms) to treat patients
- Larger hospitals again have the capacity to take critical-care patients from smaller hospitals
- Hospitals are again performing non-emergency surgeries that have been postponed
- Staff-to-patient ratios return to normal levels
While the statewide PCR test positivity rate is dropping, the most recently reported rate of 10.3% for the week that ended Oct. 30 is still more than twice the state's target of 5% or lower.
OB-GYN discusses risks of COVID for pregnant women and their children
Also in Tuesday's IDHW briefing, Dr. Guillermo Guzman, an OB-GYN with Saint Alphonsus Health System, talked about pregnancy in the context of COVID-19.
"A woman's body undergoes many changes to be able to adapt to a growing baby inside a mother. Some of these changes, unfortunately, make a woman more prone to certain medical conditions," Guzman said. "It's a well-known fact that most, if not all, respiratory infectious disorders tend to manifest more severely in a pregnant woman than in a non-pregnant woman. COVID-19 is no exception."
Dr. Guzman also said it's important to get vaccinated. He said the evidence shows the COVID vaccines now available are safe, and current guidelines from American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control "enthusiastically recommend" the vaccine for pregnant, recently pregnant, and lactating women.
"You can still get COVID-19 after being vaccinated, but if you do get COVID-19, you are very, very much more likely to survive if you do," he said.
Adams County commissioners pass ordinance against federal vaccine mandates
Adams County on Monday became the first county in Idaho to approve an ordinance prohibiting federal vaccine mandates, including the Biden Administration's rules directing federal employers, federal contractors, and other businesses with more than 100 employees to require their workforces to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The requirement for private businesses with 100 or more employees is on hold after a federal appeals court issued a stay because of potential "grave statutory and constitutional issues."
"We're a tiny county, but a freedom-loving county," Adams County Prosecutor Christopher Boyd said. "For us, it's not about whether the vaccines are good or bad but whose decision is it; it's your decision."
The Adams County ordinance also applies to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' requirement that any healthcare facilities participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs vaccinate all eligible staff by Jan. 4, 2022. Adams County Health Center, the county's largest employer, receives 70% of its revenue from Medicare and Medicaid. During a county commission meeting in October, Adams County Health Center Chief Financial Officer Mary Ann Domeck said the loss of Medicare and Medicaid funding would force the center to close.
If the ordinance is allowed to take effect in December, violators would be charged with a misdemeanor, carrying a possible punishment of $2,000 and a year in jail.
Age no longer a determining factor for care under Idaho's crisis standards
The Idaho Board of Health and Welfare on Wednesday approved updated guidance language for crisis standards of care that no longer includes age as a determining factor for who receives a hospital bed, ventilator or other resources when they are scarce.
Several groups raised concerns that the previously adopted metric, in which age was a factor, amounts to discrimination based on age and disability.
The revisions also took on so-called crisis standards of care "tie-breakers." Under the old guidance, preference for treatment would go to children under 18, to pregnant women at 28 weeks or more of gestation, and to medical workers or those deemed vital to public health and safety. The tie-breakers also delineated care preference along age groups, with the 18-40 age bracket getting the highest priority after children, followed by 41-60, 61-75, and those over 75 years of age.
The updated guidance whittles the tiebreakers down to just two.
If a hospital has two patients who are equally sick and are competing for a single ventilator or other resources, the person whose "trajectory of illness" is declining the slowest will be the one to get care. If both are declining at the same rate, the patient with the greater prospect of surviving to the point of discharge from the hospital takes priority.
Chronic conditions that reduce a patient's chance of surviving, as well as conditions that make it unlikely the patient will live, continue to bear consideration under the updated guidance, and could drop those patients into a lower priority when resources are limited.
Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare public health bureau chief Sonja Schriever stressed that no hospital in Idaho has yet had to make a triage decision on one patient getting care over another. She said "we have had more problems with (hospital) staffing than with ventilators."