COVID patients, positivity rate decline

The coronavirus seems to be declining in Kootenai County and the Panhandle Health District, according to some recent key indicators.

The number of coronavirus patients at Kootenai Health fell to 53 on Wednesday, the lowest in nearly two months.

PHD’s positivity rate dropped to 14.8% based on 4,547 PCR tests for the week ending Jan. 9, the lowest in nearly three months since it was at 13.1% for the week ending Oct. 31. It had been as high as 22.9% for the week ending Jan. 2.

The state’s positivity rate for the week ending Jan 9 was 11.4%, the lowest since Oct. 10 when it was 11.3%.

There were no COVID-related deaths reported in the PHD on Wednesday and according to the state’s website, no COVID-related deaths in all of Idaho on Wednesday.

“Now that the holidays are over and many family gatherings have passed, our positivity rate seems to be dipping back down to where it was in mid-November before the holidays,” according to a statement from Kootenai Health. “While it’s encouraging to see fewer cases in the hospital and community, it’s important to not let our guard down. Many of our physicians are concerned about the new, more contagious, strain of COVID-19 and want to remind community members to continue taking precautions seriously. In doing so, we can maintain a lower hospitalization rate and continue to slow the spread throughout the community.”

Several seniors have called The Press asking when they can get the vaccine.

Those currently given the option to receive the vaccine doses to help prevent getting the virus include hospital staff, long-term care facility residents and staff, emergency medical services, dentists and pharmacists.

Next month, the priority order for the vaccine is pre-k school employees, childcare workers, correctional and detention facility staff, adults age 65 and older and frontline essential workers.

“These first groups that we are working on vaccinating have been provided invites to various vaccine clinics, so that is why there are not links to appointments that are publicly available yet,” wrote Katherine Hoyer, PHD spokeswoman. “We plan to begin vaccinating those 65 and older in February. At that time, we will post locations of vaccine clinics with information on how to make an appointment on our COVID-19 vaccine page on our website. We will also have the information on our social media, provide it to media outlets, our COVID hotline will have the information, and we are also coordinating with our enrolled vaccine providers.”