Idaho health officials preparing for omicron

Dec. 1—Health officials in Idaho believe it's only a matter of time — possibly even a few weeks — before the omicron variant of the coronavirus is detected in the United States.

When it does appear, experts said during an online Idaho Department of Health and Welfare media briefing Tuesday, Idaho laboratories are well-positioned to be able to detect the virus.

"I suspect it will be imminent that we do hear this variant is here in the United States," said Dr. Christine Hahn, state epidemiologist. "There's more unknown about this virus than we have known. (Whether omicron is more transmissible than previous variants,) we don't know that for sure. We don't know yet how well vaccines will protect against this. (But) we do urge Idahoans to use this opportunity to get vaccinated, even if the efficacy is less than delta."

Hahn added that it is also not known whether monoclonal antibodies and other treatments for the disease will be effective against the omicron variant.

"We have to be humble in acknowledging that there's a lot to be learned about this variant," Hahn said.

The World Health Organization warned Monday the global risk from the omicron variant is "very high" based on the early evidence, saying the mutated coronavirus could lead to surges with "severe consequences."

Dave Jeppesen, director of the health and welfare department, said officials continue to see "encouraging" signs regarding the spread of COVID-19. Testing positivity rates have continued to decline over the past 10 weeks, Jeppesen said, with last week's testing positivity rate at 6.8 percent.

"We're getting close to the target of under 5 percent," he said, adding that statewide hospitalization average daily census numbers also have dropped.

The crisis standards of care in the Panhandle Health District of northern Idaho, which allows hospitals operating at full or near-full capacity to prioritize patient care, is still in effect, Jeppesen said. But even there, infection and hospitalization rates have retreated from previous highs.

"I do not have a time frame when crisis standards of care will be deactivated," Jeppesen said.

In spite of this good news, Jeppesen said the coronavirus, like all viruses, is expected to continue to mutate and "vaccines are now more important than ever."

Vaccines are available for children ages 5 to 17, and Jeppesen urged people to get their children and themselves vaccinated if they haven't already, or to get booster shots if they're eligible.

Dr. Christopher Ball, chief of the Idaho Bureau of Laboratories, said he feels confident that "with the program that we have in place that when the (omicron) variant gets here, we should be able to detect it."

As the positivity rate continues to decline in Idaho, Ball said, the importance of continuing to test for the virus increases to limit the transmission of the disease in the state.

"Even though we're trending in the right direction, testing is still very important," Ball said. "There's a lot of uncertainty (about whether the) new variant will be more transmissible. If we can just be patient for a few more weeks we're going to have a lot more information."

Public Health — Idaho North Central District added 32 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday, including one in Lewis County; three each in Clearwater and Latah counties; eight in Idaho County; and 17 in Nez Perce County. No new deaths were reported.

Garfield County added one new infection; Asotin County had 17 new cases for a 14-day count of 78 and one hospitalization; and Whitman County did not provide updates to its website.

The total number of infections and deaths in the eight-county region of north central Idaho and southeastern Washington over the past five months include: July — 354 cases, five deaths; August — 2,663 cases, 28 deaths; September — 3,291 cases, 60 deaths; October — 1,986 cases, 61 deaths; November 1,146 cases, 22 deaths.

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.