COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued a revised “Stay Healthy” order on Thursday, moving the state into Phase 2 of reopening.
One of the changes was a slight relaxation of restrictions on out-of-state visitors.
In phase one of Idaho's stay home order, Washingtonians and other out-of-state residents were basically told to stay away. Anyone entering the state had to self-quarantine for their whole stay, unless it was longer than two weeks, in which case they could leave quarantine after those 14 days.
The only exception was travel for essential purposes, such as grocery shopping, medical care, or doing a job deemed essential.
In phase two, most of those baseline restrictions are still in play but there's some new language to the order.
First, it's now a “strong recommendation” to quarantine upon entry rather than a requirement. Second, it only applies to people from another country, an area with "substantial community spread," or an area with a case rate higher than that of Idaho.
So who exactly does that apply to? It's hard to tell. First of all, the order doesn't define “substantial community spread.” Secondly, it doesn't specify precisely what is meant by “case rates.”
For instance, if you look at the sheer number of cases in Spokane County, it would seem like the high volume would mean folks coming from Spokane to say Coeur d'Alene should be quarantining when they get there. CDC data has Spokane County with 387 cases compared to Kootenai County's 64.
As such, the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office says their current tentative assumption is people from Spokane shouldn't be going into Idaho.
"I would say that Spokane County is going to meet the need to do a 14-day quarantine coming into to the state of Idaho,” said Sgt. Chris Wagar.
But you could also make the case that most of the east side of Washington is good to go under this new order. If you look at the actual case rates per 100,000 people, Idaho's is about 132. Spokane County’s is 74. There could be some wiggle room depending on how you look at the data.
Regardless, the sheriff's office actually says not much has changed on the ground. The order, after all, was always based on the honor system.
"Are we actively seeking out vehicles? Seeking out people, almost like a Gestapo-esque response? No, we're not doing that,” Wagar said. “If you run across people then obviously we're going to talk to them, we're going to educate them. But as in actively seeking vehicles, pulling them over, and telling them to show us your papers? No, we're not going to be doing that."
If you're a Washingtonian hoping to recreate in North Idaho, the safest bet is probably to hold off a little longer.
"It's not something where we're trying to write citations and take people to jail. It's nothing like that,” Wagar said. “We just hope people comply because it's for public safety."
