THE LOCAL NEWS OF THE MADISON VALLEY, RUBY VALLEY AND SURROUNDING AREAS

A look at Montana’s active Covid-19 numbers as of August 8. MONTANA STATE LIBRARY COVID DASHBOARD IMAGE

Covid cases on the rise in county, state

County nursing home facilities unaffected for now

According to the Montana State Library Covid-19 dashboard, as of August 9 the state had 395 new cases. Madison County had 16 active cases, three of those new.

Since the pandemic began the state has recorded 118,270 cumulative cases, 826 of those in Madison County. Eight total deaths related to the virus have been reported in the county.

Flathead County, with 535 active cases, had the most active cases in the state as of the 9th, 28 of those being new cases. Cascade County had the most new cases, logging 70 new and 276 active. Missoula County wasn’t far behind with 65 new cases and 205 active.

According to Tobacco Roots Mountain Care Center Nursing Home Administrator Gail Nelson there are no current Covid-19 cases at the county’s two facilities. Nelson provided a Covid-19 update to county commissioners with at their August 10 regular meeting, stating that while the nursing homes are currently not dealing with an outbreak yet, they’re preparing for one.

“We are currently planning for a surge in Covid,” Nelson told the commissioners. “We can see it everywhere, it’s coming and it’s only a matter of time.”

Nelson said all but one resident is vaccinated. She’s even had vaccine wary staff change their minds, receiving the vaccine as they’ve seen the Delta variant’s impact. The nursing homes are continuing with visitation, said Nelson, but are using masks indoors and outdoors and social distancing as much as possible. Weekly surveillance testing for vaccinated staff and residents as well as twice a week testing for those unvaccinated is being performed.

Nursing home department heads are currently creating a surge plan, looking at staffing, PPE needs and addressing the reality that some of the extra funding they’d received during the first outbreak will likely not be available this time around.

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The Madisonian

65 N. MT Hwy 287
Ennis, MT 59729
406-682-7755
www.madisoniannews.com

Cori Koenig, editor: editor@madisoniannews.com
Susanne Hill, billing: s.hill@madisoniannews.com 
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