Bullock discusses wildfires, COVID-19 data and testing at press conference

Gov. Steve Bullock provided during a press conference Wednesday updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing fire season in Montana.

Bullock said while conditions in the state remain hazardous for fires Montana is in a fortunate position when compared to many of its western neighbors with this past week being one of relative calm.

He said, as of Wednesday afternoon, the state has seen 1,875 fires, with more than 260,000 acres affected and a firefighting cost of 10 million dollars.

He said while homes have been lost and families have been affected, the season so far hasn’t been as harsh as some in recent memory.

“When I think back to the 2017 fire season, where the state costs were 70 million, today we’re in a pretty darn good place,” he said.

Bullock said the U.S. at large is at its highest level of readiness for wildfires, level 5, despite an ongoing shortage of crews, engines, aircraft and incident management teams.

He said while Montana maintains its readiness it has been able to lend engines and command vehicles to California, as well as Oregon and Washington along with other related staff.

He said, in order to keep doing this, Montanans will need to continue to be careful not to let the situation in their home state get out of hand.

“We want to be able to continue to help our neighbors in need, and in order to do so we need Montanans to be vigilant and safe,” he said.

Bullock said 75 percent of fires have been human-caused in the state this season and he encouraged people to be extra careful when recreating.

Despite the past week, he said, fires in the state have led to unhealthy smoke conditions in many areas of the state.

“Smoke is drifting into communities and rapidly degrading air quality,” he said.

He said an air quality alert has been in effect in several counties since this past Sunday, and will likely stick around for a few days, and conditions may be unhealthy for groups sensitive to it.

Bullock said the level of smoke seen in some of these areas can worsen chronic heart and lung diseases and can irritate the eyes and lungs, though its effects are not universal and are dependent of length and intensity of exposure.

He said older adults, children, and pregnant women are encouraged to take caution as they can face higher risks than others and to consider refraining from doing outdoor activities.

Bullock said a strong low pressure system will be moving in from the west Friday or Saturday which might direct even more smoke into the state, although he said it could also bring some precipitation that will improve air quality at the same time.

He said that precipitation likely won’t drive the smoke out in its entirety.

Bullock said people interested in getting more information about smoke in their area as well as safety advice can go to http://www.todaysair.mt.gov .

He also talked about the reporting of COVID-19 cases in schools as well as provided a general update on how schools in the state have fared in their opening weeks amid the pandemic.

He said parents in the state require information to make informed decisions about whether or not to send their children back to school so new procedures will be put in place to facilitate that.

Starting today, Bullock said, the Montana Department of Health and Human Services will post demographic information about positive COVID-19 cases in K-12 schools and universities, public and private, once a week.

He said transparency needs to be maintained and the system has been balanced with the personal privacy.

In order to maintain this balance, he said schools with more than 50 students will have the number of students who test positive and the number of staff who test positive, along with the name of the school and county it’s in.

But schools with 11 to 50 students will make no distinction between students and staff in their data and schools with 10 or fewer there will have no data posted in order to maintain privacy.

Bullock said the data will be updated every Wednesday, or if a significant development that the public has immediate need to know of occurs.

The data will be available on the DPHHS webpage’s demographic section, along with data on nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.

Bullock commended the work of local public health and schools for coordinating well and putting in the work necessary to make this information publicly available and accurate.

He said there are schools have been impacted adversely by the virus, but the response by these schools has shown that they are prepared to deal with the situation by coordinating with public health and acting quickly and decisively.

Since the beginning of the school year, about 60 schools and universities each have had a case, Bullock said, but most of these instances have only resulted in one or two more cases to be revealed through contact tracing, and most of those were transmitted outside of the school setting.

He also provided information on the state’s case counts which he said reflect a decrease of about 17 percent from last week.

“(That) still leaves a whole lot of room for improvement,” he said. “And that doesn’t mean that next week the cases will go lower. But it does underscore the need to protect ourselves and others.”

He said many parts of the state are still seeing community transmission, which is a dangerous situation particularly for people in long-term care and assisted living facilities.

“26 long-term care facilities and 33 assisted-living facilities have had a COVID-19 case,” Bullock said, “ … combined, one-third of the state’s deaths have been related to these settings.”

He said transmission anywhere poses a risk for people in these facilities as the more present the virus is in a community the higher the chances of a worker bringing it into the facility unknowingly.

Bullock said the data seen on the state level indicates that a decrease in hospitalizations has occurred, but he said this has more to do with some reporting issues the state has seen, and have been addressed, and probably shouldn’t be read as a trend.

Bullock said the state has been working to improve testing access, as well as the turnaround time for that testing.

He said that, for the fast few weeks, the state’s lab has received an average of between 2,800 and 3,200 tests a day, prioritizing tests of hospitalized patients, symptomatic individuals, close contacts of people know to be positive and tests involved with outbreak investigations.

He said Montana State University’s lab and Mako Medical’s lab assist when the state gets overwhelmed, taking up to 750 and 1,000 per day respectively, five days a week.

He said turnaround time has been between one and three days depending on priority.

While not at the level seen this past summer, Bullock said, communities around the state are starting to see asymptomatic testing events pick up again, with Livingston, Gardner and Fort Peck holding events in the near future.

Bullock said the Business Stabilization Grant Program has hit a new milestone, with 9,367 businesses having made use of the program, making it the most in-demand program providing COVID-19 economic assistance to Montana businesses.

On average, he said, a business receives $17,000 in working capital many of which haven’t received any other grant or loan support.

He said he has heard directly from business owners around the state that the program has prevented closures.

Bullock said these press conferences often carry the same message, but it’s one he’ll continue to reiterate as long as the pandemic goes on even if it’s tiresome for all involved.

“I know it’s becoming routine in these press conferences to give a reminder to mask up, to wash your hands, to stay vigilant against COVID-19,” he said. “Trust me, I look forward to the day when I’m not providing those reminders, when we’re not having these weekly conferences. But until we have a safe and effective vaccine that personal responsibility remains our greatest weapon against this disease.”

Bullock said Montanans have responsibilities as individuals and communities to protect others by using a mask, and he encouraged everyone to use them in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation.

“My mask protects you, and your mask protects me,” he said.

Bullock said when a vaccine it arrives it will be evaluated for safety.

“When there is a vaccine that’s deemed to have meet the standards to protect us all, it will be public knowledge,” he said. “Public health experts will be able to view the findings and we can have confidence that it will be vetted before being distributed.”

He said no major vaccine has completed clinical trials, but state and local public health has plenty of experience distributing and administrating vaccines and they will be ready to go when the vaccine is prepared using H1N1 as a model and adapting to better fit COVID-19.

Bullock said until that vaccine is completed Montanans must continue to be careful.

“Until that time we must continue to live in our new normal,” he said. “Your fellow Montanans are relying on you to be a good neighbor. We have to keep the curve flat to protect teachers and kids so our schools can stay open.”

He said Main Street businesses often have very few employees and may need to close if even one person gets COVID-19, causing financial havoc for their establishments.

Bullock said if another major spike in cases happens, decisions will be informed by public health first and economic impact second. But if Montanans do what is necessary on a personal level, that shouldn’t be necessary.