Officials plead for people to flatten the curve

Gov. Steve Bullock and some health care experts pleaded with Montanans during a press conference Wednesday to follow recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19, which is exploding in the state.

The state this morning reported 429 new cases confirmed Wednesday.

Bullock said many of the cases are coming from congregate settings like schools, assisted living facilities, prisons and increased community transmission.

Bullock said four more schools in the state have seen their first positive cases in the past week.

He said 65 percent of the new cases are from six counties: Yellowstone, Roosevelt, Missoula, Cascade, Gallatin and Flathead.

Significant upticks have also been observed in Glacier county and in a cluster associated with Montana State University, he said.

“The fact is, the virus is leading to resource constraints, placing a burden on local public health and causing disruptions to the livelihoods of those living in these areas,” he said.

Bullock said that while the majority of people in Montana are taking the situation seriously, there are still many who are not following the guidelines and recommendations made by public health on the local and state level.

“There are Montanans taking their responsibility of protecting others seriously, in turn helping to prevent spread to those most vulnerable,” he said. “ … Yet, there are also Montanans who are acting as if this virus no longer exists.”

Bullock said he is most concerned to see what could happen to the state medical system if it were to become strained, something he said doesn’t need to happen.

“We’ve seen it happen in other states and there is no real reason for it to happen in Montana. … We need to get this virus under control.”

The frustration with the situation is one that appears to be shared by Bozeman Health Chief Physician Officer Mark Williams, who spoke virtually at the press conference about the stresses of being on the front lines of efforts to combat COVID-19.

“What’s very stressful and very demoralizing for our health care workers is observing people who fail to embrace these simple health care precautions and put people at risk,” he said. “We have dedicated nurses who work in our assisted living facilities and nursing homes who literally cry at the end of a shift because they feel helplessness in caring for residents at those facilities who have effectively been cut off from families and friends because some people in the community can’t abide by these simple measures.”

He said the same science behind the efforts to develop the vaccine that so many are waiting for is behind things like social distancing, wearing masks and hand hygiene.

It’s been an extremely stressful time for everyone, Williams said, but especially for front-line health care workers including at Bozeman Health.

“We’re back to full operation while still preparing for a COVID surge,” he said.

Williams said his area was one of the first to see a spike in cases earlier in the pandemic, but cases went down as people embraced public health measures.

But now, he said, the area’s numbers are going up quickly, and there are concerns from hospital partners for how they will deal with the months ahead if things don’t change.

This is the time to double up on preventative measures, Williams said.

He said it’s important to remember that health care workers have the exact same concerns that a lot of the public does, that they ask themselves the same kinds of questions that many people do.

“What if my child’s teacher gets sick? Who will care for my children so that I can work? What about my older parents who may be around children?” he said.

Williams implored people to take things seriously, especially with flu season coming, and asked everyone to get a flu vaccine as soon as possible.

“To those who don’t (follow the guidelines) please reconsider,” he said. “We know you really do care about your friends, community and family and this is a great time to make a difference.”

Williams’s concerns were shared by St. Peter’s Health Regional Health Center Chief Medical Officer Shelly Harkins.

She said Lewis and Clark County has seen a troubling surge in cases leading to an atypically heavy caseload.

Like Williams, she said her area saw success early on in preventing spread of the virus due to people following the guidelines, but Tuesday was another record set for new cases.

“We are losing ground in Lewis and Clark and the surrounding counties,” she said.

Harkins said her facility may reach maximum capacity if this trend keeps going.

However, she said, hospital size is only one facet of what hospitals like hers face during the pandemic and staffing issues may be the real danger.

“The impact of COVID-19 on our health care system has much less to do with hospitalizations at St. Peters, and more to do with how widespread disease like we’re starting to see here cases staffing constraints,” she said.

She said hospital staff can get ill with COVID-19 or be deemed close contacts of people who have the virus because the virus is still so widespread in the community and that puts significant stain on their system.

“We have a lot of equipment, technology, medication and know-how, but we are nothing without our people,” she said.

This staffing problem, along with the typical resource shortages that result from COVID-19 surges affect the ability of hospitals to care for all patients, not just those who contract the virus and more needs to be done about it.

“We need to re-flatten the curve,” she said. “By doing so we will save lives and help protect front line workers that we depend on to keep us safe and cared for… We’re going into half time, and we’ve lost the lead.”

Harkins then reiterated a common saying at St. Peters that she thinks is very relevant.

“The outcome of COVID on our community will have little to do with the virus, and everything to do with our behavior,” she said.

Bullock also provided general updates on the pandemic situation in Montana.

He said the state is responding to personnel requests in tribal areas that are seeing significant spread of the virus and that many of these requests have also been made by nursing homes, and medical services.

He said many of these personnel requests have been filled by civilians and Montana National Guard members, and the roles being filled include EMT’s, contact tracers, incident managers and ambulance drivers.

Bullock said the state will be filling more personnel resource requests to address these shortages as well as those that will come when health care workers inevitably become sick.

He said MSU’s lab is processing 1,000 tests a day five days a week, and the MAKO Medical Laboratories is currently doing 2,000 a day seven days a week.

Bullock said the state lab has also added more equipment allowing it to process up to 1,300 tests a day further bolstering the states capacity.

He said people at the state labs have been working early mornings to late nights in staggered shifts to make all of this happen.

Symptomatic individuals, close contact and people in congregate care settings are the priority, Bullock said, and targeted asymptomatic tests will continue.

Bullock said Disaster Emergency Services has worked throughout the summer to stock PPE to prepare for the fall and people returning to school, and the state now has a 90-day supply in stock.

He said local agencies now have a cache for the winter as well.

Bullock said it may be prudent for people to start wearing masks during gathering events with family members and said most people get the disease from people they know.

He also suggested that people should wear a mask even if there are fewer than four cases in their county.

Four is the level at which a directive he issued mandated mask wearing.

Bullock said mayors and county commissioners in areas of high transmission should also be having press conferences to detail their efforts in combatting the virus in their communities.

Counties with high transmission really should be considering more restrictive measures than what is currently mandated by the state, he said, because everyone has a different situation that a blanket action by the state wouldn’t address as effectively.