This morning, no new COVID cases reported in region

Although the state is continuing to see a surge in new cases of COVID-19, the local region had at least a one-day reprieve on its surge.

No new cases of COVID-19 were reported in this part of Montana Tuesday.

Hill County Health Department and Rocky Boy Health Center confirmed they had no new reported Tuesday.

Blaine and Chouteau County and Fort Belknap Tribal Health Department did not report any confirmed cases.

The state had 104 new cases confirmed, along with two new deaths. The total for the state was 2,813 cases and 42 deaths.

Blaine, Chouteau and Hill counties have seen a surge since July 4, with the previous cases in this region one in Hill County and one in Liberty County, both confirmed in March.

The totals today were 34 cases, 28 active and six recovered, in Hill County and three cases in Chouteau County and six in Blaine County, all active.

Liberty County remains with one recovered case.

Blaine County Health Department did put out a request on its Facebook page Tuesday to put an end to rumors.

“Reminder: When your public health department says things like ‘isolation,’ ‘quarantine’ and ‘close contact’ we mean very specific things in relation to COVID-19,” the post said.

“When we are saying a case is isolated, that means they have the viral infection and are potentially contagious so are staying away from people that could be infected,” it continued. “If we say a contact is quarantined that means we have given instructions to them telling them to stay home, knowing there has been an exposure.

“A close contact is something very specific, too,” the post said. “It is defined as someone who has been within 6 feet for 15 minutes, has had repeated contact with or has had a health care-related exposure without PPE with a known COVID case.”

“It shouldn’t invite assumptions about what part of the county the case(s) live in,” the post said. “We recognize that some people feel they could better protect themselves and their families if they had ideas about the exact location in which our cases live. Remember there are laws that prevent us from releasing any information that would allow someone to identify health information to include COVID-19 diagnosis or exposure.

“We ask you to consider two things: 1) Please trust the health department to do our job, a large part of which is ensuring further contact doesn’t happen once a case or contact is identified and 2) Please think about how you would want your health information protected by the health department if you were to be a case or contact” it said.

“These are difficult times and difficult conversations. Blaine County Health Department’s goal is to remain a credible resource for information and public health management during this pandemic. We encourage our county members to help by choosing to be ‘an extinguisher’ instead of someone who fuels the fire of rumors and discord,” the post concludes.

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https://www.facebook.com/blainecountyhealthdepartment .

https://www.facebook.com/Chouteau-County-Health-Department-191027850924298 .

https://www.facebook.com/hillcountyhealth .

https://www.facebook.com/RockyBoyHealthCenter .

https://www.facebook.com/FortBelknapTribalHealthDepartment .