Amid a surge in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations that are overwhelming medical facilities, the Idaho Department of Health and Wellness on Thursday announced that the state is experiencing a hospital resource crisis, and strained hospitals are allowed to ration health care.
Under crisis standards of care, hospitals are able to determine how to prioritize care based on patients doctors believe have the best chances of survival. "In other words, someone who is otherwise healthy and would recover more rapidly may get treated or have access to a ventilator before someone who is not likely to recover," the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'King's horses take free rein through London'Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
-
Is pop music now too reliant on gossip?Talking Point Taylor Swift's new album has prompted a flurry of speculation over who she is referring to in her songs
-
Nuclear near-missesThe Explainer From technical glitches to fateful split-second decisions, the world has come to the brink of nuclear war more times than you might think
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cowSpeed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and earlySpeed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
-
US bans final type of asbestosSpeed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
-
The hollow classroomOpinion Remote school let kids down. It will take much more than extra tutoring for kids to recover.
-
Excess screen time is making children only see what is in front of themUnder the radar The future is looking blurry. And very nearsighted.
-
Covid-19: what to know about UK's new Juno and Pirola variantsin depth Rapidly spreading new JN.1 strain is 'yet another reminder that the pandemic is far from over'
-
Long-term respiratory illness is here to stayThe Explainer Covid is not the only disease with a long version
