Crush the Curve braces for COVID-19 surge

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK)-Crush the Curve Idaho is preparing for what it expects to be a surge of Coronavirus cases over the next few days.

The group believes Idaho could see at least 1,600 new cases before July 2. It expects most of the spike and the bulk of the testing requirement will fall on the Treasure Valley area.

“In order for Idaho to confront this illness in a meaningful way AND remain open, we need to test and trace our people appropriately. At Crush the Curve Idaho, we have ramped up our COVID-19 active virus testing capacity to more than 16,000 tests a day to help meet this impending need,” said Executive Director Tina Upson, “but I’m worried it won’t be enough. We have people being sent to us from some of the largest health systems in the state because they can’t test them. I’m worried that the last few months have been spent talking and not preparing.”

The organization has developed an internal resource deployment plan that is triggered by an aggregate of data points collected from a community. One of those involves comparing the daily volume of online assessments, which noted symptoms or a recent exposure, to the state’s daily reporting of new cases. The assessment data acts as an 8-day leading indicator.

Individuals needing to be tested can go to Crush the Curve Idaho’s website to take the assessment and get directed to testing centers.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit can also help companies, schools and other organizations through its group testing program.   

“Our goal with the group testing program is to give organizations a way to test quickly and on a recurring basis, while driving down costs and overcoming supply chain issues,” Upson said. “Our lab partners have the capacity to process more than 16,000 tests a day.” 

Crush the Curve will also reprioritize its resources to focus on COVID-19 active virus testing over antibody testing.

“We’re deploying all of our resources to help prevent outbreaks and provide testing to organizations with mandates under the governor’s new priority groups,” Upson said. “Until a vaccine is released, testing is one of the best weapons we have in combating the spread of COVID-19.”

Currently, Idaho is in last place for per capita testing in the United States.

You can learn more on the organization’s website.