Two more county mask mandates repealed in eastern Idaho amid declining virus cases

Author : xpnew

Publish Date : 2021-02-07 21:32:02

Two more county mask mandates repealed in eastern Idaho amid declining virus cases

It’s been nearly three weeks since Idaho health officials flagged five coronavirus samples as having possibly dangerous mutations, shipping them to national labs for more thorough screening because state labs can’t yet do that.

Still, the state doesn’t know for sure if more infectious or more deadly virus variants are here.

“All five of the samples were of insufficient quality to generate usable full genome sequences,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Zachary Clark told the Post Register in an email Thursday.

Clark said one sample had “limited coverage in the spike gene region of interest,” which is the protein the virus binds to human cells through, “and it was not” the U.K. variant. That variant, formally called B.1.1.7, is estimated to be 50% more infectious and potentially more deadly. The Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday that it has been linked to at least 541 cases nationwide, including in Teton County, Wyoming, which borders Teton County, Idaho, a tourism-driven county that has added the highest rate of new cases by population statewide. The Associated Press reported Thursday that the U.S.

“fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it’s only now beginning to catch up.” “The problem has not been a shortage of technology or expertise. Rather, scientists say, it’s an absence of national leadership and coordination, plus a lack of funding and supplies for overburdened laboratories trying to juggle diagnostic testing with the hunt for genetic changes,” the news wire service wrote. The CDC publicly reports data on the presence in U.S. states of three coronavirus variants: B.1.1.7; the B.1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa, which is linked to three cases; and the P.1 variant, first identified in Brazil, which is linked to two cases.

Clark said “no further work is being done on these samples.” Because the samples were too poor to test, the state doesn’t have evidence yet to say that new coronavirus variants are or aren’t in Idaho. But, Clark said, “we should all behave as if they are.” Clark said it’s “difficult to say” why the samples weren’t good enough to spot virus variants. He said all five samples were “stored for several weeks before sequencing was attempted,” and it’s “hard to predict” how many times samples will be thawed, frozen and handled. Environmental changes can degrade the quality of RNA within cells, making it more difficult to extract meaningful information out of them. “State and national labs are very selective in identifying samples with higher viral loads because these samples have greater success rates for producing quality sequences and the appropriate depth of coverage needed to assemble a full genome sequence suitable for” analyzing variants, Clark said. Clark said Idaho will continue sending coronavirus samples to the CDC and other national research labs.

The state’s “highest priority” is to make the state able to generate “high quality” genetic sequencing data and conduct “bioinformatics analysis by the end of the month,” he said. State labs are developing guidance to collect virus samples throughout the state. “Our hope is that this strain surveillance program will continue to grow in coming weeks,” Clark said. The CDC estimates by March, most coronavirus cases in the U.S. will come from the new U.K. variant. The ease of more transmission could lead to more infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Labs in the state cannot yet fully sequence samples itself, health department spokeswoman Niki Forbing-Orr previously told the Post Register, but they can flag samples that may contain the variant; the state health department hopes that its public health lab can begin sequencing “as soon as possible this year,” according to a Jan. 12 blog post. “This virus is mutating, and it doesn’t care of it’s in Idaho or South Africa,” Ilhem Messaoudi, director of a virus research center at University of California, Irvine, told the Associated Press.

Eastern Idaho health officials voted Thursday to remove mask mandates in Custer and Jefferson counties. And they may lift restrictions in Bonneville County, home to Idaho Falls, on Monday. Lifting the mandates is the latest move by the Eastern Idaho Public Health board to chip away at restrictions while cases and hospitalizations dwindle regionally and statewide. In early January, the health board voted unanimously to lift mandates in rural Fremont and Lemhi counties. That was about six weeks after a leading doctor at eastern Idaho’s largest hospital warned the state could hit a resource crisis. In all, just three of eight eastern Idaho counties are left with mandates — Bonneville, Madison and Teton.

Aside from any county- and city-level restrictions in place, the other COVID-19 related limits that apply to eastern Idaho counties are from the state. Gov. Brad Little on Tuesday moved Idaho up from Stage 2 to Stage 3 of his re-opening plan, capping gathering at 50 people instead of the previous 10 person limit. Political and religious events are exempt. School sports must follow separate guidance that is generally more permissive. Both Custer and Jefferson counties dropped below a daily active case rate of 15 cases per 10,000 people for more than two weeks consecutively. Custer County first dropped below that threshold, at which the board issues mask mandates, on Jan. 20; the county only reported three new coronavirus cases since then. Jefferson County has been below 15 active cases per 10,000 since Jan. 16. Bonneville County dropped below a 15 active case rate on Jan. 25. On Monday, Feb. 8, two weeks will have passed. The health board voted that if cases stay low in Bonneville County, its mandates will lift Monday. Past moves like that, which would have lifted mandates if cases stay low in eastern Idaho counties, haven’t always resulted in mandates being lifted. The few board members who spoke before the vote said they wanted the health board to “follow” its four-phase COVID-19 response plan. The plan outlines restrictions at each level tied to thresholds for virus cases and hospital capacity. Board chairman Bryon Reed said following the plan has “served us well” and prevented the board from having to make “arbitrary decisions.”