Over the last week, 37 more Montanans died from COVID-19 related illness. Active COVID cases came to 10,256. Though cases are still high, the active case count is down from 18,607 last Monday.
Over the last two weeks, hospitalizations have increased 16% with 310 active hospitalizations on Monday.
Missoula County currently leads the state in active cases with 1,966, according to the state dashboard. Over the weekend, the county had 3,647 active cases.
Though Missoula County is following the statewide decrease in cases, the county’s public health officer D’Shane Barnett says it’s not safe yet to relax mitigation efforts.
“We were going 150 miles per hour. Since then it’s slowed down, but now it’s 100 miles per hour,” Barnett said.
Missoula County has about 44 COVID inpatients, which is high for the county. The goal is to keep hospitalizations manageable, ideally at 25 or fewer, Barnett said.
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On Monday, Billings hospitals reported 84 COVID-19 inpatients. Of those, 47 weren’t vaccinated and 37 were vaccinated. Among those hospitalized, 19 were in ICU and 12 were on ventilators.
Last week, Gallatin County announced support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to set up a free COVID-19 testing site during the county’s case surge. The site opened last Thursday and will be open 7 days a week.
On Monday, Gallatin County had 791 active cases.
The state recently switched to an automated system that aggregates positive COVID cases as they’re sequenced. This will lighten the load for case reporters and will reflect a more accurate representation of COVID cases in the state.
For home tests, the user must report their results to the state through a form on the Department of Health and Human Services website within 24 hours.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 37,419 COVID cases reported in children and 146 children have been hospitalized. The last days of January brought another record-breaking week for COVID cases in children with 3,501 COVID cases reported by the state. That is a 47% increase among the age group from the previous week. There were nine children hospitalized with COVID that week.
Until recently, about 50% of Missoula County’s COVID cases were in those 20 to 29 years old. In recent weeks, some of the case load has shifted to those up to 19 years old. Now, the age group carries about a quarter of the county’s cases. Though it’s not a significant change, the county is following a statewide shift towards increasing COVID cases in youth populations.
Yellowstone County follows a similar trend with 20 to 39 year olds leading the case count and those 0 to 19 years old following closely behind.
The most recent data for Yellowstone County reported 135 preschool-aged COVID cases in the last week of January, higher than any other week. There is not a COVID-19 vaccine available for those in the age group.
During the week ending Jan 29, 168 kids in grade school, 111 middle school students and 245 high school aged kids tested positive in Yellowstone County. Again, higher than any other week.
Those ages five to 17 are the least vaccinated age group throughout the state, meaning the group may be bearing the brunt of the pandemic soon.
First doses of the COVID vaccine continue to taper off with 2,226 administered in the last week of January. It is the lowest number of first doses given in a week since the vaccine became available.
Of those eligible for the COVID inoculation, 54% have opted to get fully vaccinated.
Over the weekend, four more Yellowstone County residents died of COVID-related illness including a man in his 70s who was not vaccinated; a man in his 60s who was fully vaccinated and had received a booster; a man in his 70s, who died on Thurs., Feb. 3 and was not vaccinated; and a woman in her 70s, who died on Thurs., Feb. 3 and was not vaccinated.
RiverStone Health is offering a Visa gift card worth at least $40 to those who get vaccinated this week.
Those who get a recommended vaccine at the free, walk-in vaccination clinic at the Shrine auditorium on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will also receive a Visa gift card.
