Kootenai County, ID: Following the evening briefing of the Kootenai County Emergency Operations Center Unified Command, today’s report shows two new cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kootenai County, bringing our total to eight.
According to the Panhandle Health District, the two new cases involve a male and female. The male is in his 60’s and is self-isolating. The female is in her 20’s and is also self-isolating. Both are experiencing minor symptoms that do not require hospitalization.
Additionally, as of March 24th, the cities of Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum, Spirit Lake, Hayden Lake, Hauser, Huetter and Athol have all instituted a mandatory closure of all bars within each city. Also, all restaurants will be closing their dining rooms and only allowing takeout, drive thru or delivery service.
Due to questions we’ve received from people throughout our community, we wanted to take a moment and explain what the difference is between isolation and quarantine.
- Isolation is used to separate ill persons who have COVID-19 from those who are healthy. Isolation restricts the movement of ill persons to help stop the spread. An example of this would be, hospitals using isolation for patients being treated for COVID-19.
- Quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms. Quarantine can also help limit the spread of COVID-19.
If you begin to show symptoms associated with COVID-19 (cough, fever, tiredness, and difficulty breathing), ensure you quarantine. If you are tested for COVID-19, ensure that you self-isolate until you receive your test results. The importance of self-isolating cannot be stressed enough. However, when the symptoms subside you need to continue to self-isolate for an additional 72 hours before removing yourself from isolation. Please adhere to these guidelines to help end the transmission of this virus.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there on social media. So for the most accurate and up-to-date information on COVID-19 please continue to follow the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kootenaioem/.
Finally, we continue to be so impressed with how the local community and officials are stepping up to make the current COVID-19 situation a priority. Today we want to thank Kootenai Health, OUR community hospital, who has prioritized their response to COVID-19 above many other things. The doctors (all specialties), nurses, administration and other healthcare team members are performing at such a high level! It is a pleasure to work collaboratively with such an amazing group of experts! As a community we should all be very PROUD of the leadership and care Kootenai Health is providing at this time! Needless to say, we appreciate them and all of the Healthcare Professionals, First Responders, Community Leaders and Essential Services helping our community during this challenging time!
Unified Commanders,
Sheriff Ben Wolfinger
Chief Chris Way