Kootenai County, ID: Following the evening briefing of the Kootenai County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Unified Command, today’s report shows six new cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kootenai County, bringing our total to 16.
According to the Panhandle Health District, one of the new cases involves a male. He is in his 70’s, self-isolating and is experiencing mild symptoms that does not require hospitalization. This also has shown to be travel related. The five other additional cases are being investigated by Panhandle Health, currently. Once we have more accurate information it will be released publicly.
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.
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/.
As we continue to work towards slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we must commend the volunteers who put in countless hours making the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) run in a smooth manner. These volunteers, who have been trained through the Office of Emergency Management are skilled in a wide variety of necessary areas for the operation of the Center to be successful.
Fortunately, our partner agencies are more than willing to offer their personnel to staff the center with trained professionals who maintain the high level of efficiency. This allows the EOC to provide the coordination of resources and communications in the manner to best serve everyone in Kootenai County.
Unified Commanders,
Sheriff Ben Wolfinger
Chief Chris Way