June 30. 2020
Since the last update on June 27th, Ravalli County has received notification of 8 new cases. Three of these cases are contacts to another positive case and during quarantine they started experiencing symptoms.
The fourth case has been determined to be from community spread, as the person is not a contact to another case and travel was not a factor. The fifth through eighth cases did travel to Montana from out of state. At this time, Ravalli County has 20 cases it is investigating and doing contact tracing on. These cases are in Darby, Corvallis, Hamilton and Stevensville. Three cases are hospitalized.
Through contact tracing, over 148 people are now in quarantine as they have been determined to be close contacts. Ravalli County Public Health Department has also determined that the county has community spread, since several cases cannot be traced back to another positive case.
Ravalli County’s active cases are not all counted on the state map due to some cases having out of state addresses and some delay in the reporting process.
All of these cases are in isolation and their contacts are in quarantine.
Overall, Ravalli County has had 39 cases of COVID-19. The Montana map will show only 36, due to three cases having out of state addresses. All have had contact tracing, were isolated at the time of testing positive and their contacts were quarantined. When their isolation time period is over, they are notified by Public Health they can come out of isolation if they no longer have any symptoms. If contacts do not develop symptoms in 14 days, they are also released from quarantine.
Not all of the cases have had symptoms when they were tested. Through contact tracing, people have been referred to be tested and some have come back positive.
Some of the cases have had severe COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, cough and shortness of breath.
COVID-19 is a serious viral disease that can cause severe illness and even death. There is no vaccine or readily available treatment. It can be transmitted by people who are unaware that they are infected. Therefore, Ravalli County Public Health Department continues to stress that masks and physical distancing are measures proven to reduce the spread of COVID-19. They encourage people to be cautious, wear masks, try to maintain a 6-foot physical distance and wash hands frequently.
Please remember that people in our county are vulnerable to this disease – such as those taking certain medications or with weakened immune systems. Their lives could be threatened by being infected. Others at high risk include the elderly and people with underlying conditions, such as asthma and autoimmune diseases.
With some people more susceptible to the virus and serious outcomes from it, we need to work together to help protect each other. Please, wear a mask, wash your hands and practice physical distancing.
Call 406-375-6672 with questions regarding COVID-19.