Idaho Department of Health and Welfare answers questions about COVID-19
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) -The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is answering the public’s questions about the coronavirus pandemic.
In its weekly Facebook live, health officials talked about positivity rates in Idaho.
They were asked about the vaccine, how state officials know it will be safe and when it’s being fast tracked through clinical trials?
Elke Shaw-Tulloch explained that officials and companies are not skipping any steps in the process of getting a vaccine ready and that no company would put out a product that could be harmful.
She also talks about reporting COVID-19 cases in schools and why the health department can report cases in long-term care facilities but not in schools.
It all comes down to the patient’s permanent address.
“In the case for schools, we might get information back that contains the age and the sex of the child for example, and we’re trying to display that data on our website,” said Shaw-Tulloch. “But often times what might be missing from that information or from that record is exactly what school that child belongs to. We know they’re of school age, but we don’t know if they’re home schooled, what school they go to."
For example, the student could live in one county, but go to school in another county. They are looking at ways to produce that information on the department’s website.
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