Both governors of Washington and Idaho visited their respective sides of the Inland Northwest on Wednesday, addressing Covid-19 in their states.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee met with officials at Providence Sacred Heart while Idaho Governor Brad Little toured the monoclonal treatment site at the Kootenai County Fair Grounds.
Gov. Inslee and Gov. Little have been at odds with each other over the last few weeks, criticizing each other’s response to the pandemic but both governors having the same message for their constituencies; get the vaccine.
“Failure to become vaccinated is a threat to everyone in Spokane county, even if you never get Covid,” Gov. Inslee said.
Gov. Little expressing the same sentiment, “I want to remind everybody the monoclonal antibody treatment is a second to people getting vaccinated. We’ve got to get our numbers down.”
“Compared to the vaccines we’ve had before, there’s been more follow up on this vaccine than anything in history,” Gov. Little said.
Hospital officials are describing border communities, like Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, as the ‘stopgap‘ for ineffective Covid practices in Idaho which Gov. Inslee mentioned during his trip to Spokane.
“I’ve also heard this problem has been compounded by the fact we have been good neighbors helping our friends in Idaho,” Gov. Inslee said. “I’ve been told there are as many as 30 patients a day we are having to care for more than they typically would that are coming from Idaho.”
According to Inslee, over 2,000 canceled surgeries are postponed in Spokane County due to hospitals not having beds.
“As Governor of Washington, it is frustrating that politicians in Idaho are not helping with this subject. We should all be pulling on the rope here, we need Idaho to pull on the rope to reduce infection rates so people in Spokane County can get into a hospital bed,” Gov. Inslee said.
In Kootenai County, Gov. Little said hospitalizations are going down but, “we have a long way to go.”
KHQ asked Gov. Little if there was discussion of meeting with Gov. Inslee during their respective trips. Gov. Little said the two of them are usually on phone calls with each other but they have not spoken with each other since summer.
A request from Washington state for more medical staff is in place with the Federal Government to help relieve hospitals.
