Seattle and Portland could be facing an influx of COVID-19 patients from Idaho if the state’s overwhelmed health system does not see case numbers fall soon.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Kootenai Health Hospital announced that its 26-bed critical care unit has already reached 99% capacity.
As of Thursday, Kootenai Health reported that it was caring for 31 COVID-19 inpatients with 11 of them in critical care. Six more rooms of the hospital have been converted to COVID-19 care units, but Kootenai Health officials worry that may not be enough as flu season hits.
The hospital is also short-staffed, as demand for nurses grows with the rise in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, Kootenai Health officials said. They said that Spokane, Washington’s hospital system is already at full capacity. Portland and Seattle’s hospital networks would be the next closest options.
“Because many regional hospitals are experiencing the same situation, there will be limited opportunities to transfer patients to other facilities once at capacity,” a statement from Kootenai Health reads. “As we enter cold and flu season we anticipate the usual increase in illnesses and hospitalizations, which will affect already stretched resources.”
For most people, COVID-19 can causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that can linger for two to three weeks. For others, especially the elderly and people with preexisting health problems, it can induce pneumonia and even death.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has reported 55,650 cases statewide and 546 confirmed or suspected deaths from the virus. About 54% of those deaths accounted for people age 80 or older.
Kootenai County alone has seen 3,629 reported cases of COVID-19 and 48 deaths to date.
As of Wednesday, the state still had 94 unoccupied ICU beds and 440 ventilators on hand. Those numbers are well below the 191 ICU beds and 464 ventilators reported as recently as September 20.
Just weeks ago, the Seattle mayor’s office released data suggesting Washington and Oregon’s largest metropolitan areas had the fewest case counts in the country. Yet hospitals in both states are seeing their resources stretched thin.
Washington has seen 99,874 reported cases of COVID-19 and 3,386 deaths total.
This week, the Washington Department of Health (DOH) reported that the state’s more than 14,500 medical beds had reached 63% capacity.
Hospitals in Snohomish, Whatcom, and Garfield counties reported reaching 80% capacity while Seattle’s King County has reached 62% capacity, according to DOH data.
The DOH had no data on bed capacity in Wahkiakhum, Douglas, and Skamania Counties.
While 40% of all COVID-19 cases were contracted by people ages 20 to 39, nearly 38% of the state’s 8,149 hospitalizations from the virus were between the ages of 60-79.
Hispanic people in Washington accounted for 40% of all cases and 29% of all hospitalizations, despite comprising roughly 13% of Washington state’s population, according to 2019 U.S. Census data.
Supplies of available ICU and ventilators statewide are not specially tracked according to publicly available data.
In Oregon, 40,810 people have contracted COVID-19 and another 646 have died from the virus, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).
The state is currently caring for 121 COVID-19 inpatients as of Wednesday, the OHA reported.
The state’s number of COVID-19 inpatients peaked at 167 on August 14 and dropped as low as 46 on June 2. Most hospitalized with the virus in Oregon averaged 80 years.
There were 43 COVID-19 inpatients occupying Oregon’s ICUs on Wednesday, OHA data shows, down from the state’s all-time high of 66 on April 7 and well below its record low of 16 on May 11.
On Wednesday, Oregon had 21 COVID-19 inpatients on ventilators statewide. Only eight people were on ventilators as recently as September 19 and a record 66 on April 7.
Oregon’s COVID-19 data does not track hospital bed capacity by county and lumps as many as six counties in nine regions, which can include a range of large cities and small towns.
Region 1, which includes Portland, is at 86% capacity for ICUs and 92% capacity for general medical beds.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has not issued any order requiring face masks statewide to slow the pandemic. Idaho’s capital and largest city, Boise, requires people to wear face masks in public, along with several other cities.
The state’s Stay Healthy Guidelines have largely left workplace use of personal protection equipment up to employers to determine.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, by contrast, have both issued increasingly strict statewide face mask and social distancing orders in virtually all workplaces since the pandemic began.
