The Covid pressures continue in Spokane County and north Idaho.
The Panhandle Health District reported 177 new cases on Tuesday. That makes 361 cases over the last two days.
Spokane County had a bit of a reprieve, relatively speaking, 137 cases reported Tuesday, the lowest mark since at least Thursday.
The hospitalization numbers continue to increase, 126 between north Idaho and Spokane County. Fifty-one of those are in North Idaho, up three from Monday; 75 people are in Spokane County’s hospitals, including 62 from Spokane.
Seattle-King County Health Officer Jeff Duchin says people like him are getting nervous about hospital capacity.
“Over the next couple of days we’ll be watching those hospitalization numbers and reaching out to our health care system leadership. We want to understand from them what they’re feeling, what the stress level is, what their capacity is and where they think we’re headed, because, don’t forget, it takes weeks to turn around a trend. If we see that this trend is going in a direction that’s stressing our hospitals, we’re going to need to act pretty quickly," Duchin said.
The Spokane Regional Health District announced two more deaths from Covid, bringing the county's total to 220. Eighty-three north Idaho residents have passed from the virus.