Stay Safe, Stay Well: COVID-19 Update fof 12/30/20

As of Monday, November 28th, the Phillips County Health Department is reporting an additional 4 active cases in Phillips County, which brings us to a total of 423 total cases. 21 cases are reported as active, with 390 cases considered recovered and two hospitalizations out of a total of 40. At last reporting, 12 county residents have lost their lives.

Also on Monday, Hi-Line Retirement Center updated their report to state that out of 41 residents, 25 have recovered and 6 are still testing negative. Sadly, they have experienced eight deaths due to COVID-19. At the Assisted Living Facility, 10 out of the 15 residents have fallen ill with the disease, with eight of them considered recovered and two active cases at this time. The other five residents continue to test negative. The staff at the nursing home has been hit hard, with 36 out of 55 employees having contracted and recovered from the disease and 19 staff members continuing to receive negative test results. Five out of the eight members of the Assisted Living staff have come down with it, with 3 recoveries and two with active infections at this time. The remaining 19 employees have all tested negative thus far.

The initial vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers and long-term care staff and residents arrived last week, and hopefully, the worst is over. We will keep you apprised of the timeline of how and when more vaccinations will be made available to the general public.

Montana’s COVID-19 dashboard site states that there are 5,591 known active cases statewide on Monday, December 28. There have been 79,999 total cases of COVID-19, with 73,481 people having recovered. An additional 224 cases have been reported since Sunday, for a total of 2,675 new cases in Montana in the past seven days alone. 213 Montanans are currently hospitalized with the virus, with a total of 3,464 since the beginning of the pandemic. 927 Montanans have died of the virus.

Nationwide, the CDC reports over 152,000 new cases on Monday afternoon, out of an overall 19.3 million. A total of over 337,000 people have died in the U.S., and globally, 1.77 million have lost their lives since the beginning of the pandemic.