New COVID-19 cases reported in new locations

New cases of COVID-19 have been reported in new locations in the area, including six cases and a COVID-19-related death reported in Sweet Home in Chinook and a new case in North Star Elementary in Gildford leading to the school being shut down today.

Sweet Home made a post on its Facebook page Wednesday night reporting three residents and three staff members had been confirmed with COVID-19, and one COVID-19-related death was reported at the skilled nursing facility.

Hill County also has presumptively passed the number of new cases that will lead to the county health officer imposing new restrictions next week, although the final numbers will be looked at through Sunday before a decision is made.

Northern Montana Care Center reported its first confirmed case, in a staff member, Sept. 16, and has had numerous staff members and residents confirmed positive since, with multiple COVID-19-related deaths at the center.

Sweet Home said in its post that the positive residents who remain in the facility are being isolated in one area of the building; staff who are positive are home isolating.

Sweet Home also has a total of 11 presumed positive residents, but is waiting on confirmation test results from the state lab and will update the information as soon as it have those results, the post said.

Sweet Home's post said it is testing staff and residents according to its protocols that are driven by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance based on the identification of a COVID-19 case in the facility.

The testing will be frequent and on-going, the post said, adding that Sweet Home will test all staff and residents who tested negative every three to seven days until testing identifies no new cases of COVID-19 infection among staff or residents for a period of at least 14 days since the most recent positive result.

"We have worked tirelessly to keep COVID out of our facility, but now that it is here, we will do everything possible to keep our residents and staff healthy," the post said. "We work closely with our medical director and Blaine County Public Health and are following all guidelines of the CDC and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Please help us dispel rumors and keep things as positive as possible; we appreciate thoughts, well wishes, and prayers much more than negative, untrue rumors," the post added.

Blaine County Wednesday evening reported a total of seven newly confirmed cases, with 111 active cases and 12 hospitalizations with seven deaths. The county has a total of 308 confirmed cases.

North Star Schools announced Wednesday school at North Star Elementary in Gildford was canceled today, with grades four and five continuing with remote learning as they have this week and classes for kindergarten through third grade canceled for the day.

"There has been another positive COVID-19 test, and due to concerns about the possibility of further transmission we will cancel school for the day," the release said.

Superintendent Bart Hawkins said this morning that he had no more information on the situation, and updates on the situation will be released as information becomes available.

North Star normally does not hold classes on Friday and has run on a four-day school week for several years.

The release said no decision has been made regarding school beyond today's cancelation at the time the release was issued.

The state COVID-19 response tracking map's update this morning listed Chouteau County with three new cases for a total of 105, 57 active and 48 recovered.

The map reported no new cases in Liberty County with three active cases and 28 recovered for a total of 31 cases.

Hill County Board of Health has approved proposed restrictions, released in a draft form by the Hill County Health Department this week, if the number of confirmations of COVID-19 in the county does not significantly drop.

The number, based on the number of cases per 100,000 people in the county each day, translates to about 58 cases a week for the county, measured from Monday through Sunday.

The number of newly confirmed cases so far this week is 82, with the numbers dropping slightly each day. Monday had 38 new cases, 29 Tuesday and 15 Wednesday.

The county health department said it will look at all the numbers through Sunday before making a decision.

Havre Public Schools, which returned to its hybrid model of in-class learning Wednesday, continued to have new cases confirmed in people associated with the district this week, mostly while classes were being conducted remotely.

The district announced Wednesday afternoon that it was notified a person associated with the district tested positive and was in quarantine, although that person was not in contact with district staff or students during the period of possible exposure and contact tracing will not be conducted.

Two cases were confirmed Monday, although, again, contact tracing in the school district was not required.

The state map reported this morning a total of 891 new cases in Montana for a total of 30,853 cases, 10,474 active and 20,042 recovered with 337 deaths and 373 active hospitalizations.