STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

St. Luke’s Wood River will resume limited services today—Friday, April 3.

The hospital will again offer inpatient admissions and clinic visits on a case-by-case basis.

Hospital leaders temporarily suspended non-emergent operations on March 20 to ensure a safe environment for patients and caregivers as coronavirus began marching through the Wood River Valley.

Now:

• Urgent surgeries and procedures will resume
• The mother/baby unit will open.
• St. Luke’s Family Medicine Clinic will reopen on a limited basis on Monday, April 6, for patients without COVID symptoms who are seeking medical care. The clinic will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.

  Internal medicine, gastroenterology, neurology, obstetrics and other specialty services will be available on a rotating basis. Patients should contact their primary care providers or, if they don’t have a provider, they should call the clinic at 208-788-3434. Video and telephone visits will be utilized where appropriate, as well.

• St. Luke’s Wood River’s Emergency Department continues to be fully operational for medical emergencies. Patients needing higher levels of care will be transferred to appropriate facilities.
• Patients seeking same day care for non-COVID urgent illnesses and injuries will be triaged and seen at the walk-in clinic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at the Physician Office Annex next to the hospital. Patients are encouraged to call ahead to be put on the schedule to ensure optimal safety at 208-727-8811.
• An orthopedic clinic will also be available in the Physicians Office Annex from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays for patients needing follow-up and to assist with urgent/emergent needs. Call the orthopedic clinic for an appointment.

Call St. Luke’s hotline at 208-381-9500 with questions.

“We are taking a thoughtful, measured approach to reinstating services to ensure we deliver exceptional care in a safe environment,” said St. Luke’s Wood River Chief Operating Officer/Chief Nursing Officer Carmen Jacobsen.

“We will continue to evaluate how we best deliver safe patient care given the every-changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she added. “We are learning, very quickly, just how nimble and resourceful health care providers are having to be through the course of this pandemic.”

UP, UP, UP

Idaho has recorded 894 cases of COVID-19 since the first was announced March 13. That’s 222 more than Wednesday’s tally of 672.

Blaine County’s cases jumped again from 256 to 351 on Thursday, Ada County now has 307 cases and  Twin Falls County now has community spread with 32 cases. Elmore County has community spread, as well.

The Idaho Statesman noted what Eye on Sun Valley story noted on Sunday—that Blaine County has more coronavirus cases per capita even than hard-hit Italy and New York City.

When Blaine County had 312 cases, Blaine County had 141 people testing positive for every 10,000 residents.

Ada County had five, and Idaho four COVID-19 diagnoses per 10,000 residents.

A University of Chicago study shows that Italy has 19 cases per 10,000; New York, 60, and Seattle, 11 per 10,000 people.

That’s despite Idaho’s anemic testing rates compared with other Western states, The Statesman said.

The 95 new cases reported in Blaine County on Thursday after other big jumps every day this week  reflect the fact that a large number of people got tested in the past two weeks and the results are coming back.

 St. Luke’s Wood River has begun sending tests to a University of Washington lab that turns results around in four days, rather than the 10 to 14 days it was taking, said Joy Prudek, spokesperson for St. Luke’s Wood River. And that means we’re getting whammied with results

“I would expect to see big numbers for a few days at least,” added Prudek.

Brianna Bodily, the spokesperson for South Central Public District Health, agreed that Blaine County is now seeing the results of a large number of tests. The vast majority of the illnesses are mild and do not require hospitalization, she added.

“We are expecting to see many more cases before it gets better. I know I sound like a broken record, but that is absolutely why we urge people to unify as a community and help us slow the spread of this virus. We need everyone on board,” she said.

Is social distancing helping?

“We need more time to tell,” Bodily said. “There is a lot of valid concern in our communities and we all want answers immediately. However, the reality of this situation is that it will take time before we can tell whether or not our efforts are making a dent.

“The Governor’s stay-home order is barely a week old. The shelter-in-place order in Blaine County is only a little bit older. Because of the 14-day incubation rate this virus has shown, it will take several weeks before we can really say whether or not our community’s efforts are making an impact. What we are seeing right now is that this virus moves fast. To slow it down we have to work together and be patient.”

What people can do in the meantime is check on their neighbors, Bodily added:

“Call them. Wave from the street. Message on social media. Do what you can to help your community hold together while we all work together to slow the spread of this virus.”

The City of Sun Valley has approved additional measures strengthening the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Self-Isolation order. The measures include restricting travel in and out of Blaine County, shutting down construction projects, landscaping and limiting hotel or shared rental units to health care and government workers.

The tighter restrictions, which mirror those already taken by Blaine County and the cities of Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue, took effect at midnight and will remain effective until April 12 at 11:59 p.m.

Blaine County Commissioner Jacob Greenberg said he hopes to analyze Blaine County’s testing numbers today.

“We are still seeing a strong number of people showing up to be tested and still a big percentage who pass the screening and are being tested. People need to stay home and practice physical distancing when they are out of the house. What we are hearing now is that it spreads more readily through aerosolization than was first thought,” he said.

“We need to be concerned and take this seriously,” he added. “You have to act like the person you run into at the store has the virus. We are resilient and will get through this but we need to be diligent about following the rules.”

JACOB GREENBERG’S THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY:

I wish the Senior Connection was open. When I see Jim Fox there, it reminds me of when Jeanne and I owned the Western Cafe. He and his brother, Lindsay, would come in and tell us stories about the valley from back in the day. We lived in what we referred to as the “Highway House”, a few doors down from the Mountain View Grocery, and apparently, the train ran more frequently behind the house than did cars in front of the house. We had one non-smoking table when we bought the “Western” and one smoking table when we sold it. I swear I couldn’t tell the difference. The moral of that story is, don't smoke and please STAY AT HOME!

The County has a Blaine County Resources page and is offering to centralize resources available to those in need. If you don’t see an available resource on this page please forward the link to your site or to others you come across to mpomeroy@co.blaine.id.us and we will make it available. The Road and Bridge Department has been performing post-earthquake inspections and has found no damage to transportation infrastructure.

I contacted the Governor’s office yesterday and asked about a moratorium on evictions and was told that we should be hearing something about that soon. The Idaho Association of Counties holds a weekly meeting, on Thursdays with Governor Little, in which we present written questions. I have asked the Dept. of Labor about sufficient personnel to process unemployment insurance claims, exemption from using these claims as a component of employer’s unemployment insurance rates, the waiting period and requirements for job search when we are sheltering in place and businesses are shuttered. I have suggested that the state has a rainy-day fund and it is raining! What is the state doing about sourcing much needed equipment outside of the federal system?

We are working on providing more testing. There is obviously substantial economic advantage to sorting our community into those who are acutely ill, those who are still vulnerable and those who have recovered and may have immunity. The CDC indicates that “the immune response, including duration of immunity, to SARA-CoV-2 infection is not yet understood. Patients with MERS-CoV are unlikely to be re-infected shortly after recovery, but it is yet unknown whether similar immune protection will be observed with COVID-19”. Dr. Fauci, nation’s top coronavirus expert, says he is willing to bet that recovered coronavirus patients will have immunity. Those with immunity can resume a much more normal life, including going back to being productive, earning and spending and boosting the economy.  They may also be able to support ongoing efforts to provide essential services for the most vulnerable or those in need of support for other reasons.

In addition to the obvious community-wide health and economic benefits of a robust, community-wide testing initiative, epidemiologic value would be enormous.  If we are able to combine antibody status with behavioral data (workplace, recreational activities, residence location, visits to hospital, where you shop, etc.) we will have the ability to deconstruct the local epidemic.  This will allow us to reveal our past and current strengths and weaknesses.  That will enable us to perform far better and more effectively as we will go forward much better prepared for the next round which public health officials worldwide have warned is most likely coming sooner than we think. Keep in mind we aren’t through this round yet and the data from numerous past test results is forthcoming.

I howled last night with the neighbors and the dogs. Howling has spread faster than the virus. Apparently Warm Springs howled. I thought I heard Commissioner Angenie McCleary’s howl and Augie’s too! This is a united community intent on helping one another. Be safe. Be kind. Share with those who are in need.”