While COVID numbers dropping in some areas, outbreaks continue

COVID-19 numbers in the region both show success in slowing the spread of the disease in some areas but how fragile that situation is in others.

While some counties are reporting few new cases and dropping numbers of active cases, surges in other areas are raising numbers and shutting down schools.

Dodson Public Schools Superintendent Gary Weitz said this morning that the Dodson school board approved in a special Zoom meeting Saturday keeping the schools there closed until Feb. 8 due to an outbreak of the disease, first reported last Tuesday.

Weitz said Dodson schools includes students and staff from both Phillips and Blaine counties, and from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, which is in both counties, so he is still waiting to find out complete numbers of confirmed cases and quarantines due to close contacts, but the numbers they had just for Phillips County by Saturday's board meeting was 19 cases and direct contacts in the school and 16 more in the county outside of the school.

As numbers are confirmed and collated in Fort Belknap and Blaine County the number of people involved with Dodson schools impacted likely will continue to grow, he said.

Other schools including the junior and senior high schools in Harlem also continue to be impacted by the spread of the disease.

Officials locally and across the country and the world have warned that people need to continue to act to slow the spread, wearing masks, social distancing, regularly washing hands and so on, or the numbers will again start to surge.

Even as vaccinations roll out, until enough people are immunized - likely months in the future - a surge in the spread of COVID-19 could start again, officials say.

Some areas in this part of Montana seem to have had success with slowing the spread.

Hill County reported no new COVID-19 cases Monday with the total number of active cases down to 17.

Rocky Boy Health Center reported Monday on its Facebook page that Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, the numbers from which are reported either with the numbers of Hill County or Chouteau County, had no new cases and, "We hare happy to report that there are now zero active cases in Rocky Boy."

Liberty County, reported on the state tracking map this morning, had one new case reported, the county's only active case.

Chouteau County, also reported on the state tracking map this morning, had no new cases and seven active cases.

But the situation in the Dodson schools, on the western edge of Phillips County just off the reservation and about 10 miles east of the Blaine County line, and Harlem Junior/Senior High School in Blaine County show the disease is still present.

Blaine County reported Monday nine new cases that day and over the weekend, bringing its number of active cases to 44, with Fort Belknap reporting three new cases and its total of active cases at 25.

That is an increase of 44 total cases in Blaine County and 26 total cases on Fort Belknap since Jan. 15.

Phillips County reported that from Friday through Monday three new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, with the county reporting 20 active cases.

Weitz said that with the multiple jurisdictions involved in tracing and testing the outbreak at the Dodson schools, the results of those efforts - he said CDC did more than 400 tests Tuesday through Thursday just on people directly connected to the Dodson schools and community and more were done for the reservation and Blaine County - the numbers likely will continue to grow. He said he expects to see more results today and Wednesday.

And it is not just Dodson.

Harlem Public Schools shut down Monday afternoon, with Superintendent Doreen Warren saying in a Facebook post the elementary school was closing because of a power outage due to a downed line and the high school and junior high closing due to a confirmed case of COVID-19.

The post said the junior and senior high schools were closing immediately to allow for deep cleaning. Another post on the Facebook page said junior and senior high school students would attend school remotely today.

Warren said this morning the junior and senior high schools will return to in-class learning Wednesday. Harlem is using a four-day a week in-class model, with some students choosing to use a complete remote learning plan instead of coming to the schools.

But Dodson schools are shut down for at least two weeks.

In the special Zoom school board meeting Saturday, Weitz recommended Dodson schools stay shut down to Monday, Feb. 8, with extracurricular activities shut down to Monday, Feb. 1, which the board approved.

He said this morning the school closure is due to the lack of staff, but enough competitors and coaches would be available by Feb. 1 to go back to practice the district decided to allow that, also to allow keeping commitments to other schools with scheduled games.

Weitz recommended Saturday the "fan plan" for extracurriculars be amended to no visiting fans and no local fans except for two tickets provided for each senior on the Coyote teams to distribute.

He said this morning the district previously had restricted the fans to no visiting team fans and to four tickets for players to distribute, which gave good distancing at the games, but they decided to further restrict that while giving the seniors a chance to have their families see the game.

Weitz said the top CDC official in the area said that plan would be fine moving forward.

The district will continue to monitor the situation to protect its students, staff members and community members, he said. The opening date is tentative, assuming enough staff will be out of quarantine, recovered and test negative to operate the schools.

He said people have been wondering if a particular event might have started the outbreak, but enough different events - a dance, a home game and several away games over the past weeks - could be a possible cause that speculating where it started would be irresponsible.