Our View: People still need to treat COVID like a deadly disease

Despite daily confirmed case numbers of COVID-19 generally dropping in the area and in the state, government mandates being rescinded or expiring and vaccine rolling out, Havre Daily News hopes people still take the disease seriously and treat it like a deadly illness rampant in their communities.

That’s what it is.

As of reports this morning, close to 100 million people in the world have contracted the disease and more than 2 million people have died. The U.S. has seen nearly 25 million cases and more than 400,000 people have died. 

In Montana, more than 91,000 people have contracted COVID-19 and more than 1,100 have died from complications of this preventable illness. That includes one in Liberty County, five in Chouteau County, 24 in Blaine County and 40 in Hill County.

And, although numbers of new cases have dropped dramatically — apparently because people are being careful — the virus is still here, as they found out in the Dodson Public Schools this week, with numerous cases shutting down the schools and causing massive testing events in that area.

While some officials say keeping mandates in place or creating new ones may not be necessary due to the rate of transmission being slowed — not all agree, with locations like Whitefish and Missoula putting in strict local restrictions — if people aren’t careful, the state, including this part of north-central Montana, could be right back to where things were in September and October.

Numbers skyrocketed then, and it wasn’t until restrictions were put in place locally and on the state level that the transmission slowed.

Local health departments have been reporting days with just a few new cases or even no new cases for a day, but they are pleading with people to keep up the precautions that are slowing the spread of the virus.

Fort Belknap Indian Community says it even more strongly. Even on releases saying no new cases were confirmed, the tribal government tells the readers, “This continues to be extremely dangerous,” and that all restrictions still are in place.

And the disease is getting more complicated as time goes on. Scientists say it is developing new mutations because so many people have contracted the virus. What that will mean in the long run is unknown, although treatments and vaccines still seem to be effective, but slowing its spread is crucial to slow its mutations. If mutations of the virus arise that are resistant to the vaccine, the world is back to Square One.

Gov. Greg Gianforte has rescinded most of former Gov. Steve Bullock’s directives on group sizes and how late establishments can stay open and so on, saying he believes in personal responsibility rather than government regulation.

But that means people still need to follow the recommendations — he is just saying people should do it on their own because it is the right thing to do.

He has not lifted the mask mandate, so people still are required to wear cloth masks when out in public. Even when he does lift that mandate, people still should wear the masks, the single most-effective way to prevent spread of the virus when out and about.

And people should avoid large gatherings, stay home if they don’t need to be out, regularly wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol, regularly wash and disinfect surfaces and — perhaps most importantly — stay home if they don’t feel well.

Montana in general has slowed the transmission of this virus, and in this region, Blaine, Hill and Liberty counties’ numbers of new cases have dramatically dropped. 

Chouteau County, while it never really had a huge surge as Hill and Blaine counties did, is still seeing its numbers creep up with a much-higher percent increase than the other counties are seeing.

But if people start acting like the problem is over, like people seemed to do in June, July and August, the numbers of new cases — and the numbers of new deaths — will shoot up again.

This is a deadly virus spread throughout our communities. Treat it like one.