COVID-19 cases up
(Image courtesy PANHANDLE HEALTH DISTRICT) Boundary County had its first confirmed case of COVID-19 reported Thursday.
SANDPOINT — The Panhandle Health District reported a 110 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, which increased the total cases to 1,240.
Nineteen people are hospitalized, up eight from Friday. Since the start of the pandemic there have been 45 hospitalizations.
Kootenai Health’s spokeswoman Kim Anderson sent a letter Monday to area mayors saying that “over the weekend the situation has become more critical.
“Our ICU is currently at capacity,” she wrote.
“We are increasingly concerned that without a community-wide masking mandate, our health care community (and eventually our businesses and schools) will soon be in an impossible situation,” she wrote.
Anderson wrote that long-term care facilities are refusing to accept COVID-19 patients because they do not want the disease to spread to other residents. Because patients cannot be discharged without a plan for continuing care, without a place that will accept them, “we cannot discharge these patients so their bed can be used for someone who requires hospitalization,” she wrote.
She wrote that Kootenai Health is working to incentivize nurses to take extra shifts because it does not have enough staff to care for patients under their regular schedules.
She also wrote that the rate at which hospital staff members are using personal protection equipment has increased significantly.
Bonner County’s coronavirus count rose nine to 100, with 56 of the cases considered active. In Kootenai County, there are 637 active cases with 1,059 since the start of the pandemic. There are 9 active cases in Boundary County, with 11 total since the start of the pandemic. Shoshone County has 25 active cases with 27 total since the start of the pandemic, while Benewah County has 3 active cases with 29 total.
Another three people have the virus but their county of residence has not been determined; there have been 14 cases since the beginning of the pandemic where the county of residence has not been determined.
PHD reported the age group of 18-29 has by far the most COVID-19 cases at 398. The 30-39 age group, at 212 cases, is the second highest, which means those two age groups account for more than half the total cases.
Females are being affected more, with 667 cases while 571 cases are among males. There has been one death in Kootenai County attributed to the coronavirus.
Health officials continue to encourage people to practice social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks when in public places by others.