Beaverhead County Has 4 New COVID-19 Cases (Updated)

According to this morning’s Montana Response website Beaverhead County now has 4 active cases. (Two new ones added today a female in the age group 30-39 and a female in the age group 0-9) Southwestern Montana News has reached out to Beaverhead County Health Dept to see if these are from contract tracing with one of the previous patients, or if this was from the community testing, they hosted earlier in the week. We will update this story as more information becomes available.

Update press release from Beaverhead County Health

Additional cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Beaverhead County

Beaverhead County Public Health is investigating four new cases confirmed over the weekend of COVID-19 in the county.

This brings Beaverhead County’s total COVID-19 case count to 7.

The cases include two females in their 30’s who are symptomatic and were identified as contacts to a previously identified positive case. A third case is a female under 10 years old who is symptomatic, exposure is still being investigated. The fourth case is a female in her 40’s who is also symptomatic. Her exposure is also still being investigated. Contacts for this female are still being determined. As with every case if you are not contacted by public health, you are not considered a close contact. A close contact is considered someone who is within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes with a positive case.

Beaverhead County Public Health Director, Sue Hansen, reminds Beaverhead County residents to be cautious and remain vigilant as cases in Montana continue to dramatically increase. Social distancing, wearing face coverings, washing hands, and remaining home when sick are 4 of the very simple and proven ways we can reduce the transmission of this disease. Just because the county has had very few cases does not mean we are immune to an outbreak of COVID-19. Large gatherings such as weddings and crowed bars where social distancing is not being followed have been linked to recent cases in Montana.

Testing is being planned at Dillon History Days on Friday, July 24th for community-wide testing. This testing is for asymptomatic (no symptoms) persons only. Time and location for this testing is being determined and will be announced when planning is complete. Those who have symptoms are asked to seek testing at Barrett Hospital and Healthcare by calling their healthcare provider. Those experiencing severe symptoms are asked to seek emergency medical care at the hospital.

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