Bullock discusses COVID spread, fires, during press conference

Gov. Steve Bullock announced a new relief program through the CARES Act during a press conference Thursday and discussed new COVID-19 cases found in tribal communities and nursing homes.

He also provided an update about the fires occurring around the state.

“The initial attack was 17 new fires burning over 100,000 acres due to what’s really extreme fire conditions — among those fires we saw several fire events,” Bullock said. “The Huff fire was human caused and started near Jordan (Wednesday), fire burned over 30,000 acres in the first of about 12 hours. The town of Jordan and unincorporated communities of Cohagen and Rock Springs were evacuated (Wednesday).”

Bullock also declared a state fire emergency Thursday evening.

See a story on the fire emergency on this page.

Bullock, a Democrat, cannot run for re-election due to term limits and is running for the U.S. Senate, facing incumbent Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Wendie Fredrickson, who is running as a Green Party candidate although the Green Party told the Havre Daily News they have no affiliation with her or the PAC supporting her.

He said during the press conference that most residents impacted by the fires have returned to their homes.

The state is anticipating impacts to agriculture and ranching operations in that area, he said.

He added that the Bobcat Fire was also human-caused and started south of Roundup — the fire burned more than 20,000 acres in the first burning period and several rural subdivisions were impacted.

Signal Peak Energy’s mine was also evacuated, he said.

“The Snider and Rice fires started near Ashland and are currently under investigation,” Bullock said. “The fires burned around 38,000 acres in the first burning period. The town of Ashland was evacuated (Wednesday) evening, but residents were allowed to return home this (Thursday) morning. Residents are advised though still to be prepared to evacuate if the weather conditions do change.”

The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation secured approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for federal management assistance grants, he said, to assist with the costs of fighting the Huff, the Bobcat, the Snider and Rice Fires.

“I am thankful to FEMA for their quick turnaround in approving these grants,” he said. “Additionally, other fires including the Birds Eye Fire here in Lewis and Clark County, and the Ramspeck fire in Meagher County (Wednesday). Birds Eye Fire is already considered contained after the rapid response of state and county volunteer(s), National Guard firefighters personnel. The Ramspeck is also considered contained at this time, unfortunately two primary structures and several outbuildings were lost in initial attack and the area also has significant power line damage.”

He said if people are planning open burning this month take precautions to prevent wildfire.

“All of us certainly need to stay mindful of current weather conditions and local fire restrictions,” he said. “Please keep the piles you are burning small and never burn on hot and windy days, never leave your fire unattended and if your fire gets out of control call 9-1-1 immediately.

“As we manage these two concurrent situations with wildfire season certainly upon us and COVID-19, we ask Montanans to continue to keep or take those precautions to keep themselves and their families safe,” he added. “Rural and urban communities in many areas of our state are being impacted by both. Reminds us that no matter where we live a wildfire or the spread of the virus can present challenges that we have to confront and adapt to.”

He said the state has seen a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases that began in mid-June — the state has had seven consecutive weeks with approximately 800 cases added weekly. 

Many of the state’s smaller counties and tribal partners have contributed a significant amount of cases over the past month, Bullock said.

The state’s larger counties continue to report the majority of cases with nearly 1,000 in Yellowstone County alone, he said. 

He said in the past month alone, the state has seen increases in Cascade and Flathead Counties, while Missoula and Gallatin have been relatively stable.

“As you know we’ve been experiencing some real concern in outbreaks in some of our tribal communities,” he said. “Crow and Big Horn Counties outbreak began in late-May and since then over 650 cases have been reported. The dedication of tribal health and their staff has been truly remarkable and they’ve experienced fewer cases for each of the last three weeks, which is a trend that we certainly hope will continue.”

Rosebud County in the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Nation is addressing a more recent outbreak that began in early August, he said, and has grown at an “alarming rate” with about 275 cases identified there in the last few weeks.

He said in both of those areas, Crow and Northern Cheyenne, federal and state partners from Indian Health Services, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and Montana State and Local Disaster Emergency Services have collaborated to provide support for contract tracing, on-site nurses, testing resources and other needs.

“The outbreak has prompted tribal leadership to continue with stay-at-home orders to slow the spread as quickly as possible,” Bullock said. “Montanans and visitors alike should respect the tribes’ measures to mitigate the virus by adhering to the stay-at-home order and any other restrictions at this time.

“We already know all too well how fast this virus can spread and how it can be detrimental to populations, how it can burden health care providers in these rural areas of the state,” he added. “We’ve also seen rural communities like Phillips County significantly reduce active cases after an outbreak.”

He said that, early on in the pandemic, the state Department of Public Health and Human Services have compiled an inventory of health care workers that could be deployed to other areas of the state if in need of that additional workforce.

From that registry, he said, they reached out to health care providers in every corner of the state, Montana currently has three registered nurses deployed or working in Northern Cheyenne and to provide assistance from towns in Libby and Bozeman.

Contact tracers are also on site from Circle and Bozeman, as well as additional EMT’s, he added.

“Congregate settings continue to present a challenge. The recent increase in Cascade County can be partly attributed to cases in the Cascade County Regional Detention Center,” Bullock said. “Detention centers in Yellowstone and the Big Horn, and Crow areas have also had recent outbreaks. Fortunately, the state’s testing capabilities including turnaround times have improved and we’re able to quickly assess these situations and work with locals to respond.”

More than 40 residents and 12 staff have been identified in a single facility, he said, which includes six deaths and three individuals in the hospital.

He said the states long-term care and assisted living facilities have been a primary focus for prevention efforts since Day 1.

“Our efforts continue as we’ve gone actually beyond federal requirements for long-term care centers and filed an emergency order requiring all assisted living facilities test staff as a condition of offering visitation,” he said. “Even with these efforts though, collectively Montana we have not been able to prevent all the outbreaks in these settings. To date, 47 of our approximately 280 facilities … have reported a COVID case in a resident or staff member.”

These settings have experienced nearly 340 cases, he said, and 35 deaths since March of this year.

“We’ll continue to aggressively protect our most vulnerable populations, supporting responsible testing inspections and on-site infection control evaluations in these settings,” Bullock said. “In addition to deploying on the ground resources to communities fighting the virus, we are also continuing to get Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars out to individuals and businesses to support economic recovery.”

The state has nearly allocated a billion dollars in Coronavirus Relief Funds and with more $370 million of that into people’s hands including grants that have gone to nearly 12,000 Montana businesses and organizations, he said.

That includes support for everything from making sure that businesses can keep employees on the job to helping the agriculture industry and other entrepreneurs adapt to challenges during this time, to keep the life entertainment industry afloat and helping business purchase supplies to keep them and their customers safe, he said.

Applications are being reviewed for accuracy and compliance, he said, in accordance with federal guidelines daily, adding that additional funds are being rewarded daily.

“Since announcing the loan deferment program in June, which defers payments on existing loans for six to 12 months, we’ve awarded $36 million to over 1,000 Montana businesses to defer $115 million in loan payments by those businesses,” Bullock said. “That means for every dollar that is awarded in the loan deferment program Montana businesses are received $3 in direct benefit. This program is open to all businesses with a loan that meets the criteria, but it is specifically targeted to meet needs identified in the hospitality industry.”

Many businesses in that industry, in particular lodging, have been able to utilize this program to free up capital for borrowers to leverage on a monthly basis, he said.

He said these dollars have gone a long way to support Montana businesses and ensure long-term stability.

The loan deferment program is being built to offer support to businesses that may not already have a loan, he said, but need access to additional capital after a loss of revenue due to the pandemic.

“The Montana Working Capital Program will allow Montana businesses to take out a new loan to be used for payroll, employee benefits, lease or rent, inventory, utilities and insurance,” Bullock said. “We’ll utilize the unused portion of the $125 million allocated to the loan deferment program to fund this working capital program. New borrowers can work through and approve lender to take out loan within 35 percent of it that loan granted through Coronavirus Relief Funds.”

He said the borrower will still be responsible for making payments on the remaining 65 percent of the loan.

He added that the maximum loan size is $500,000 with a maximum grant size of $175,000 and then the borrower would be responsible for the remaining $325,000.

To be eligible, he said, borrowers must have experienced at least a 15 percent reduction in gross revenue attributed to the direct or indirect impacts of COVID-19, then the rates and the terms will be determined by the lender and the borrower.

“Like the loan deferment program the new working capital program will be run by the Board of Investment in partnership with Montana banks and credit unions that will begin accepting loan applications next Tuesday,” Bullock said. “... (Today) the Centers of Disease and Control is expected to put in place the nationwide moratorium on evictions through the end of this year. This will cover renters here in Montana and it will protect a renter from eviction if they have lost a job and are unable to pay rent. The renter still must use, this is the federal regulations’ best efforts to maintain all available government assistance for rent or housing, it doesn’t relieve an individual from an obligation to pay that rent.”

He said that, in May, he allocated $50 million in Coronavirus Relief dollars for emergency housing assistance to make sure that Montanans were able to stay in their homes.

“I’d encourage any individual who has lost income to COVID to learn more and apply to that program, which can cover about 75 percent of your rent or mortgage each month,” he said. “This past Monday, we made upgrades to the emergency housing assistance program — made it so that more Montanans may be eligible for monthly rent and mortgage assistance. The eligibility updates include reducing the household contribution calculation from 30 percent of gross income to 25 percent of net income eliminating those requirement of 10,000 readily available assets limited to checking and savings accounts and implementing $250 per month award.”

He added that he has also allocated $180,000 to Montana Legal Service Association through the fund to ensure more Montanans can access those free legal services — services are available to Montanans who can’t afford a private attorney for eviction prevention, family law, domestic violence and more.

“As we approach Labor Day weekend I want to remind Montanans to take precautions to reduce transmission of the virus,” Bullock said. “Around 13 counties in our state have identified community spread and a big source of community spread is social gatherings that aren’t following the guidelines. It’s on each of us to be a good neighbor and take every effort to protect those around us, especially those who are most vulnerable to major complications and even death should they contract COVID-19.

“New normal means we shouldn’t have social gathering without proper precautions including masks at outdoor gatherings of over 50 people or where social distancing cannot be maintained,” he added. “It means if you have symptoms you stay home and you call your doctor for a test instead of exposing your friends, coworkers to COVID-19.”