COVID update for the week of January 13

On Thursday, January 7, 2021, The Phillips County Health Department reported three new positive cases of COVID-19. Those individuals are isolated and contact tracing has been completed. According to the Montana State Coronavirus tracking page, on Monday, January 11, 2021, Phillips County currently has 21 active cases, with 444 total cases reported. Of these, 409 people have recovered, and 14 residents have been lost to the disease, or from COVID related illnesses. The mask mandate remains in effect.

The staff of the PC Health Department notes that they have received many calls concerning the availability of the vaccine. Per their social media account, “The State of Montana will be pushing out 13,000 doses per week beginning January 18th. There are 220,000 Montana residents that fit the Phase 1B category. With that being said, this is going to take some time and patience to ensure that every Phillips County resident in this category has the opportunity to be vaccinated. As we move forward with planning, we are going to work on the current requests and will let you know when more vaccine becomes available.” They encourage everyone to continue to check their Facebook page for updates and information.

On Friday, January, 8, Hi-Line Retirement Center is reporting no changes from last week, aside from one Assisted Living staff member who is now considered to be recovered since our last report on Monday, January 4.

Montana’s COVID-19 dashboard site states that there are 4,922 known active cases statewide on Monday, January 11. There have been 86,653 total cases of COVID-19, with 80,674 people having recovered. An additional 228 cases have been reported since Sunday. 207 Montanans are currently hospitalized with the virus, with a total of 3,853 since the beginning of the pandemic. 1,057 Montanans have died of the virus.

Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s Vaccine Tracker reports that 6,010 vaccines were provided on 1/7/2021, with 23,000 doses administered in Montana overall.