Southeastern Idaho Public Health

Take time to heal from the pain and suffering, the exhaustion. Forgive yourselves and know you did all you could with what you had. Vet Carmen Katrina Nurse first responder. Crater Lake Rustic River Lodge or Lake Front Haven

when will lost river medical center staff receive their vaccine?

So I tested positive on Monday my wife on Friday so when does my quarantine end? 14 days after her test or mine?

The Area Agency on Aging will be starting a Chronic Disease Self-Management Class in January! The self-management program helps people and their caregivers control their symptoms, better manage their health problems and lead fuller lives. The classes are 2 ½ hours, once a week, for 6 weeks. The small group workshops include people with chronic disease and their caregivers. The next class will be held online starting January 14th, from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. If you would like to enroll, or if you have questions, contact Gina or Laurie at (208)233-4032.

People should be sending SUSAN COLLINS a huge THANK YOU for taking a leadership role in today's call. She took a courageous step and made the right call. SHE SHOULD BE APPLAUDED today by everyone in Bingham and Bannock county. THANK YOU SUSAN.

People should be sending SUSAN COLLINS a huge THANKYOU for taking a leadership role in today's call. She took a courageous step and made the right call. SHE SHOULD BE APPLAUDED today by everyone in Bingham and Bannock county. THANK YOU SUSAN.

Below is a letter sent to us by statewide healthcare providers and leaders: Physician Guidance for Health Districts Amidst COVID-19 and Influenza October 26, 2020 As a group of physician health system and medical group leaders across much of Idaho and Eastern Oregon, we have been focused on saving lives and preventing illness and death from the scourge of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020. Collaborating with one another, we are sharing best practices and connecting our clinical care to ensure that the community has access to the most up-to-date guidance, testing and innovative, state-of-the-art treatment. Early in April our region experienced its first surge of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Fortunately, community spread was effectively mitigated by Governor Little’s Statewide Stay-at-Home Order. Then in early July of this year we experienced a major surge of COVID-19 attributable to moving into stages 3 and 4 of reopening, social interaction, and lack of face covering. During this surge, primary care providers and COVID-19 testing sites were saturated with sick and exposed patients and hospitals were forced to ramp down in the provision of non-COVID, medically necessary, time-sensitive care. In short, the June/July surge forced delays in attending to the needs of patients with chronic diseases and non-emergency conditions. Control of the situation was achieved only with improved compliance to good practices, supported in some areas by mask mandates. Healthcare providers have been on a fragile edge since that time, busy with COVID-19 and other patient needs but not overwhelmed. Since September 7th Idaho has seen steady growth in the number of new COVID-19 cases in our communities. Coincident with that growth, the spread of coronavirus has been slowly accelerating as has the positivity rate on COVID-19 testing for all age groups. This validates the fact that the community is now entering another COVID-19 surge, starting from a point of much higher disease prevalence than was present at the beginning of the July surge. This new surge appears to be temporally associated with a community fatigue and decreased compliance with best COVID-19 prevention practices, combined with the resumption of in-person education in schools, most notably colleges and universities. As this letter is being written, hospital coronavirus admissions are rising in some of Idaho’s hospitals and the decline in admissions elsewhere has ceased. Idaho reported 1,094 total cases on Friday, October 16, breaking the record for the most cases of COVID-19 added in a single day since the pandemic began in March. The positivity rate for infection is well over 10% for the state and the White House Coronavirus Task Force has called for some Idaho school districts to stop in-person learning due to the high positivity rates among school-age children. We are particularly alarmed that a combination of COVID "fatigue,” colder weather and rain bringing groups together indoors, and respiratory virus season (colds, flu, and other infections circulating simultaneously with SARS-CoV2) will have a significant adverse impact on the community. Put simply, this creates conditions for explosive spread of COVID-19 superimposed on other common diseases that will predispose patients to more severe sickness and death. It will overwhelm our health systems. As physician leaders from southwest Idaho, we believe it is imperative to follow the best available scientific evidence to protect our community, now more than ever. We therefore support the following: 1. We strongly urge each health district to implement a mandate that everyone 2 years and older wear masks when outside the home and physical distancing cannot be maintained. Oregon, which has more than double the population of Idaho, has a statewide mask mandate and 10,000 fewer infections. 2. Everyone needs to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer, and maintain the greatest possible physical distance from others, a minimum of six feet. 3. Social events that bring together large groups of people should be discontinued even when face covering and distancing requirements may be met. 4. Mandatory restrictions on the number of individuals that can congregate, mitigation requirements for businesses, suspension of team sports and discontinuation of in-school learning need to be strongly considered in communities where testing positivity rates are greater than 10%, or the number of new daily cases is greater than 20 per 100,000 on a rolling 14-day average. 5. We encourage everyone to get an influenza vaccine before the end of October. Organizations that are able to require flu shots as a condition of employment are encouraged to do so in order to protect their employees and customers. 6. A student or school staff member who has had a known exposure to COVID-19 should self-quarantine for 14 days from the last exposure, according to CDC Guidelines. Exposure is defined as close contact – within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes – with an individual with laboratory- confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection or illness consistent with COVID-19. a. A student or school staff member with known exposure should seek physician guidance and testing if available. b. Close contacts should quarantine for 14 days even with a negative test. c. Coaches, parents, teachers, etc. should encourage and not discourage others from getting tested for COVID-19. 7. Understanding that a significant percentage of COVID-19 tests can miss the virus giving a false negative result, decisions about returning to work or school must be made with caution. At this time of year viral respiratory diseases, influenza, and gastrointestinal infections are beginning to spread in our community. These infections coupled with SARS-CoV2 will create a significant demand on our health care system. As a community, we all need to adhere to wearing masks, keeping our distance, and washing hands. The alternative is many of our friends, neighbors, and family will become ill and possibly need hospitalization. While we are worried, we also know that working together to conform to these practices can again gain control over the worsening COVID-19 situation. David Pate, M.D., former President and CEO, St. Luke’s Health System David Peterman, M.D., Pediatrician and CEO, Primary Health Medical Group Jim Souza, M.D., System Chief Medical Officer, St. Luke’s Health System John Kaiser, M.D., VP and CMO, Saltzer Health Joshua Kern, M.D., VPMA for Magic Valley, Jerome and Wood River, St. Luke’s Health System Kenny Bramwell, M.D., System Medical Director, St. Luke’s Children’s Mark Nassir, M.D., President, Saint Alphonsus Medical Group Steven Nemerson, M.D., CCO, Saint Alphonsus Medical Group Susan Kim, M.D., Physician Director of Pediatric Urgent Care, Primary Health Medical Group Ted Epperly, M.D., President and CEO, Family Medicine Residency of Idaho Image may contain: flower and plant, text that says 'We cannot force someone to hear a they are not ready to but message we must never underestimate receive, power of planting seed. the naturalOlife natural life jive.love.laugh'

Questions: I notice on your Tableau data site it says Bannock County has 771 cases (724 confirmed), but on the Tableau data site through coronavirus.idaho.gov it says Bannock County has 638 cases (605 confirmed). Which number is more accurate? Why the differences? Thanks in advance for the information, and for all that you do...

So why in the heck does siph have a plan with the colors/stages that if you look at it and read it that we should actually be in the red not green? Your plan is quite contradictory to your answers to people why?

So what stage/color are we actually in??? The way you caculate the numbers make no sense 🤔 very confusing 😲

How in the world can Bingham County be at minimum risk when they have had almost double the amount of confirmed cases per the guidelines of 47?????

How can we find out the positivity rates in individual Counties??