A team from the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is expected to assist the Cascade City-County Health Department on Monday, as a CCHD staff member prepares to leave and coronavirus cases continue to rise in Cascade County.
The CCHD confirmed late Friday that the CDC will examine the health department's process and find ways to streamline logistics. The team will give the health department ideas for additional technology as well as help simplify data management, a health department official said. The official said they're looking forward to the visit and the help.
Cascade County added 51 new coronavirus cases on Saturday morning, bringing the total number of active cases to 1,879.
Public Health Officer Trisha Gardner confirmed Saturday morning the team of four will arrive on Monday and stay for at least a week. The team will arrive after spending some time in Billings, which is in a similar situation to Cascade County in terms of rising case numbers. The team will have two epidemiologists, a public health adviser and an epidemic intelligence service officer.
"We're really excited to take this opportunity and tap into that knowledge and expertise that they bring," Gardner said.
The news comes as CCHD's prevention services division manager is set by the end of this month to leave the department, which was already short-staffed in recent months. That job is posted, as are jobs for a communicable disease public health nurse and a public health nurse to do home visits, Gardner said.
There were 986 new cases and 11 new deaths added to the total on the Montana COVID-19 tracking site on Friday morning; the data below is from the official Montana website on November 6:
- HOSPITALIZATIONS: There are 437 current hospitalizations, and a cumulative total of 1,447 hospitalizations.
- DEATHS: The cumulative number of deaths in Montana is now 418.
- ACTIVE CASES: There are 13,921 active COVID-19 cases in Montana.
- CASES & RECOVERIES: There have been 36,968 cumulative cases, with 23,608 people listed as recovered.
- TESTING: There were 3,572 completed tests, for a cumulative state-wide total of 523,596.
The counties reporting the largest number of new cases are Cascade with 147, Yellowstone with 105, and Gallatin with 98.
Numbers reported by the state each day occasionally differ from those reported by county public health departments due to periodic lag times in reporting data to the state. We encourage people to check the official website and/or Facebook page of their respective county health department for any information that is not yet included in the state's daily updates. Based on data from the state and county health departments, MTN News is reporting the following:
- Deaths: 455
- Total Cases: 38,246
- Active: 12,600
- Recoveries: 25,194
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