BUTTE — The Butte-Silver Bow Health Department confirmed 5 COVID-19 related deaths on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, including 4 at nursing home facilities and one death in the community.
According to a release, Butte’s Crest Nursing Home is the site of a COVID-19 outbreak, with 16 residents and 21 staff members recently testing positive for the virus. Three facility residents have died due to COVID-related causes.
The Butte-Silver Bow Health Department also announces that another resident of Copper Ridge Health and Rehab and an additional community member have died from COVID-related causes.
Butte-Silver Bow Health Officer Karen Sullivan said Friday that Health Department staff have been working with Crest’s administrator, Staci Bercier, throughout the COVID-19 event.
“Crest staff have taken every measure to prevent the virus from entering the facility, and they are managing now in very difficult circumstances,” Sullivan said. Crest is located at 3131 Amherst in Butte.
The Health Department previously reported COVID-19 outbreaks at Continental Care & Rehabilitation, with 12 fatalities, and Copper Ridge, now with seven fatalities. The Springs at Butte, a Butte assisted living facility, also has reported a fatality related to COVID-19.
The Health Department had also previously announced the COVID-related death of a community member.
Butte-Silver Bow now reports a total of 25 fatalities related to COVID-19.
Almost all of Montana’s 71 long-term care facilities have reported positive COVID-19 cases, with 70 facilities, or 98.6 percent, reporting cases. Fifty-eight facilities continue to have 1,441 active cases.
The latest data from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services reports 131 COVID-19 fatalities in Montana’s long-term care facilities. Montana has 211 assisted living facilities. Of those, 108 have reported positive cases of COVID19, with 60 facilities reporting 645 active cases. The state’s assisted living facilities have reported 65 fatalities.