Last week, we spoke to the former head of St. Luke’s health system about how hospitals are preparing for COVID-19, or the coronavirus. There are no coonfirmed cases of the virus in the state yet, but state officials are preparing for that to change.
Recent cases — and six deaths from a senior citizen facility in Washington state — have many Idahoans on edge. But when it comes to testing, Idaho is in better shape than other states.
Until as late as last week, only the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and six state labs — including one in Idaho — could test patients for coronavirus, Peter Kyriacopoulos, the Director of Public Policy at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, told ProPublica.
To learn more about what our state is doing to prepare, Idaho Matters is joined by state epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn and epidemiologist Lindsay Haskellan with the Central District Health Department.
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