Health care workers are exhausted and angry. Some of Idaho’s coronavirus vaccines are expiring because they have sat unused for so long. And coronavirus case numbers and deaths continue to climb, putting the state among the worst in the nation for the rate of new COVID-19 diagnoses.
Idaho’s public health leaders painted a grim picture — again — during a weekly briefing on the pandemic Tuesday.
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen says the state continues to set record highs with 686 hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of Sept. 18, 180 of them in intensive care unit beds and 112 on ventilators. At the moment, there is no end in sight to the surge.
The entire state entered “crisis standards of care” last week, officially allowing hospitals to ration health care as needed so that scarce resources can be directed to the patients most in need and most likely to survive.
One out over 213 Idaho residents tested positive for COVID-19 within the past week, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University — making Idaho eighth in the nation when it comes to the worst COVID-19 diagnosis rates. (AP)
