Report: COVID-19 spreading at ‘alarming’ rate in region – Idaho Mountain Express and Guide

The South Central Public Health District issued a warning this week that COVID-19 cases in the region are increasing faster than in other surges of the virus and the test positivity rate has hit record highs.

Amid the spike in COVID-19 cases in south-central Idaho, the district has stopped conducting investigations into most new cases because it does not have the staff to keep up and prevent a major backlog. Instead, it will use its available resources to focus on cases involving high-risk residents.

The positivity ratethe percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positivein the district was 37% on Jan. 27, the date it was last published, the district stated in a report Tuesday. That figure is almost double the peak rate in the last case surge and more than seven times the target of 5%, the safety threshold at which a pandemic is considered under control.

The Twin Falls-based Health District serves eight south-central Idaho counties, including Blaine County.

High positivity rates indicate that a disease is spreading more quickly in the community, the district stated, and when the positivity rate rises above 5%, public health organizations encourage immediate action to protect against further disease spread.

More than a third of our neighbors and family members testing for COVID-19 are actually sick with the disease. Thats incredibly alarming, said Logan Hudson, the districts division administrator. This disease is spreading at a rate faster than weve ever seen before.

The current surge in the region is being driven by the highly infectious omicron variant of COVID-19, which has caused cases to mount faster than previous spikes, the district stated. In the fall 2021 surge pushed by the delta variant, it took 11 weeks for reports to climb to more than 1,000 new cases in a calendar week, the district stated. In the current omicron surge, it took half the time, requiring only five weeks to reach the same level.

The region has recorded more than 1,200 cases in a week, the district stated, close to the highest peak of the first surge of COVID-19. Meanwhile, cases in nearly every county in the region are trending upward, it said.

In its last set of COVID-19 risk assessments on Jan. 27, the district determined that all eight countiesBlaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka and Twin Fallshad a critical risk for virus spread and impact.

This disease is spreading at a rate faster than weve ever seen before.

Logan Hudson

South Central Public Health District administrator

As cases surge, disease investigations are strained, the district stated. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has reported a backlog of more than 42,000 positive tests that need to be investigated by local health districts. Several thousand of those lab results are in the South Central Public Health District, the district stated.

Once positive cases are sorted from the other lab results, it takes an average of 10 minutes per case to enter information into databases used for public reporting and an additional 30-45 minutes to conduct a full investigation on a case, the district stated. Investigations are not required to report a case, but are helpful in confirming ethnicity, employment and other demographic details that help track disease spread, it stated.

Currently, the district is receiving an average 150 cases reported per day. To keep up with the new cases and start reducing the lab backlog, the district would have to hire at least 17 full-time employees to focus on investigations alone, it stated.

Pursuant to a recommendation from the Department of Health and Welfare, the district has scaled back investigations to focus on high-risk residents. That group includes people living in congregated living facilities, residents who have been hospitalized, and health-care and other frontline workers. The district will no longer reach out to every person who tests positive for COVID-19, it stated.

The district is asking residents who test positive for COVID-19 to assist the new process by self-reporting symptoms and other illness data on a secure online form on its website, phd5.idaho.gov. Data will stay confidential and will be used to help epidemiologists track the disease.

Meanwhile, not all positive lab results are being reported as cases, the district stated in its report. Because some people get tested more than once in a short time period and results from non-residents are not counted, only about 70-80% of the positive lab results in Idaho are reported as cases, Health and Welfare has stated.

In addition, most at-home COVID-19 test results are not reported.

COVID-19 cases in Blaine County have been trending downward but are still considered by health experts to be very elevated. Health and Welfare reported that 178 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Blaine County in the week of Jan. 26 to Feb. 2.

Of the eight patients at St. Lukes Wood River hospital on Thursday, one was being treated for COVID-19, St. Lukes reported.

The Health District is urging all residents to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by getting vaccinated, social distancing wherever possible, wearing a mask in areas where social distancing is not possible, and limiting gatherings with people they dont live with.

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Report: COVID-19 spreading at 'alarming' rate in region - Idaho Mountain Express and Guide