To better synchronize novel coronavirus pandemic policy creation among the various municipalities in the region, the Bannock County Commission announced Tuesday it has activated a Multi-agency Coordination group.

As more coronavirus cases are confirmed in Eastern Idaho virtually every day, with Jefferson County reporting two additional cases Tuesday — both a male and female over the age of 65 who were not hospitalized and are self-isolating at home — regional government leaders are pulling out all the stops to prevent COVID-19 infections from spreading.

A group that includes the Bannock County Commission and government leaders in each Bannock County city, the Multi-agency Coordination (MAC) group will work in conjunction with the recently created Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to streamline policy decisions and ensure each community is provided with adequate support and resources to prepare for a potential coronavirus outbreak in the region, Bannock County Commission Chief of Staff Scott Crowther told the Idaho State Journal on Tuesday afternoon.

“The MAC group can provide coordinated decision making and resource allocation among participating agencies and may establish priorities among the emergency incident, which in this case is the novel coronavirus pandemic,” Crowther said. “This meeting was intended to serve as a briefing for our community partners in emergency management and allow them to ask questions about what the county is doing and how they can become more involved in our response to this situation.”

The EOC, which has started daily meetings at the Southeastern Idaho Public Health office, includes county emergency managers, fire and police chiefs, state school safety officials, Idaho State University representatives, long-term care providers, tribal officials, members from the health department and personnel from Health West and Portneuf Medical Center. Whereas the EOC is tasked with coordinating the public dissemination of important health information and impacts to the businesses and agencies within the community in light of the the coronavirus pandemic, the MAC group's sole purpose, at least for now, is to foster better communication strictly among government leaders, Crowther said.

“This is just one example of the efforts that our leaders are putting into this crisis as this virus enters our community,” Crowther said. “There is always an opportunity to expand the MAC group into the private sector, but at this point we are keeping it to the governmental entities only and will be in constant communication with the EOC.”

During the Tuesday meeting held at the Bannock County Courthouse — with the mayors of Pocatello, Chubbuck, Inkom, McCammon, Arimo, Lava Hot Springs and Downey participating telephonically — no decisions or resolutions were passed, but the Commission did provide each entity with guidance related to declaring a state of emergency in their respective locales and how such a decision will facilitate the availability of various funding sources.

Crowther said that while the county’s March 16 emergency declaration covers each city therein, emergency declarations made by each city on an individual basis will allow them to tap into additional state and federal relief packages related to the COVID-19 situation. COVID-19 is the infection currently being caused by the novel coronavirus. So far, the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck have already declared states of emergency related to the spread of coronavirus.

“Technically the county state of emergency will cover the cities, but individual declarations will allow them to better track their expenses for reimbursement and create policies that impact that city directly,” Crowther said. “Part of the reason for creating this MAC group is to share policies and declarations that each city has made thus far and how it will benefit them.”

One topic of discussion during the meeting was whether the state or county will implement mandatory shelter-in-place directives such as the one in Blaine County where widespread community coronavirus transmission is occurring, or rather, if such a decision will be left up to individual city leaders.

Places like Pocatello, where Mayor Brian Blad said some businesses are ignoring the advice of public health officials to implement self-isolation or social distancing practices, a countywide shelter-in-place directive may be what’s necessary to curb the virus's spread. But in smaller and more rural cities in the county, such as Arimo, Inkom or Lava Hot Springs, the mayors said either almost every business and resident there are already adhering to social distancing practices, or are experiencing limited economic impacts related to the coronavirus and that a countywide or statewide directive would be overkill.

The concern among the governmental leaders echoes sentiments that Gov. Brad Little has consistently delivered during what has become almost daily public briefings, in that Idaho is a state of varying ideological beliefs and demographic makeups.

During his press conference on Monday night, Little said, “As the coronavirus situation progresses in our state, I want to reassure Idahoans that we continue to take all steps necessary at this time to protect our citizens and preserve capacity in our health care system. Our goal is to slow the spread of coronavirus. I’m in daily contact with our public health experts and epidemiologists, who are providing me guidance on the actions that are necessary at this time. We are committed to making decisions based on science (and) Idaho is an expansive, geographically diverse state. Science — and common sense — tell us that the planning and response efforts in one part of the state may not be the best approach in another part of the state.”

County officials were quick to point out the individual actions of Southeast Idaho cities and the creation of the MAC group are proactive actions and go directly against criticisms against Idaho leaders for their alleged inaction.

“We are definitely fighting the spread of this virus,” said Bannock County Commissioner Terrel “Ned” Tovey. “I think we were one of the first counties in the entire state to create an emergency declaration and in fact the Idaho Association of Counties intends on using the documents we are creating as templates for the entire state.”

Tovey continued, “We have a different makeup than New York City, Boston or Seattle. We are geographically spread out and cannot shut down every gas station or grocery store. What we are after is we don’t want people going to restaurants and bars and packing the place. We would love it if self-isolation and social distancing was being implemented at the hand of people instead of the government telling people what to do and we don’t want to cause undue damage to our communities than what we are trying to prevent.”

The MAC group is scheduled to meet again on Friday at 9:30 a.m. with the Commision attending in person at the Bannock County Courthouse and other entities participating via telephone.