What you need to know if the coronavirus comes to Idaho

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – If someone in Idaho comes down with the novel coronavirus, authorities say they would be ready to handle it.

Any number of things could happen, depending on who is infected, when and where. A school could close, as one did in suburban Seattle on Thursday. Employers could start screening workers and visitors, as Boise’s Micron Technology Inc. already is doing. Public events could be canceled. Workers with desk jobs might be asked to work at home.

Public health experts and government officials have built pandemic plans for viruses, but the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, is especially difficult to treat as there is no vaccine.

There are no confirmed cases of the disease in Idaho. When it comes — and Dr. Kathryn Turner, deputy state epidemiologist, says it likely will — it might be hard to ignore the disruptions it will cause.

A Washington state woman whom President Donald Trump said was in her late 50s, from medically high-risk population, on Saturday became the first coronavirus death reported in the United States. Oregon reported its first coronavirus case Friday, a worker at an elementary school in the Portland area, which authorities said would be temporarily closed.

RELATED | First U.S. coronavirus death confirmed in Washington state, officials say

Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Most people have mild symptoms, which can appear two to 14 days after exposure. Severe illness and death is possible but typically occur only in people with other medical complications.

Will you get sick?

There were no confirmed cases of the disease in Idaho as of Friday, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said the risk in Idaho is low. A man found dead in Boise was tested for the disease but did not have it.

Dr. Kathryn Turner, the deputy state epidemiologist, said people should be aware of the disease but not necessarily worried about it.

RELATED | Local hospitals prepared for unlikely spread of coronavirus

Health officials in California learned Wednesday that a person in Sacramento had tested positive for the virus. The California Department of Public Health said in a news release that the patient “had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual,” making this the first U.S. case of unknown origin.

The nature of viruses, Turner said, is that they just look for good hosts. They do not respect borders. So Idaho likely will be affected.

“I don’t know when that would be or what it would look like,” she said. “Our goal would be to do what we can to stop that from being transmitted to more people.”

This article was originally published by the Idaho Statesman. A portion of it is used here with permission. Read the full story on their website.