Hill County sees 51st COVID death

Hill County has suffered another COVID-19-related death, bringing the confirmed death toll to 51 residents of the county,

Hill County Health Department reported the death in its update Monday evening, also reporting 63 new cases confirmed from Saturday through Monday. The department reported Hill County had 136 active cases with seven active hospitalizations due to COVID-19 with 2,678 cases confirmed since the first case was confirmed in Hill County in March 2020.

Hill County’s one case and a sole case in Liberty County were the only ones in this region until July 2020.

No new COVID-19-related deaths were reported confirmed in Blaine, Chouteau or Liberty county by Monday, although new cases of the disease continue to be confirmed in those counties.

Blaine County, which has 24 confirmed COVID-19-related deaths, reported seven new cases confirmed from Saturday through Monday, with 77 active cases in the county.

Chouteau County, which has suffered seven COVID-19-related deaths, was listed on the state online COVID tracking map as having one new case with 16 active. It has had 199 total cases.

Liberty County has seen only one COVID-19-related death since the pandemic hit Montana, but its public health department reported Monday it has 34 active cases, the highest level in the county since November 2020.

“Please be diligent in wearing mask, staying home when you are ill, and wash your hands frequently and often,” the post on the department’s Facebook page reporting the number of active cases said.

The online state tracking map after this morning’s update listed 12 new cases for Liberty County, with a total 199 cases. The county has had one COVID-19-related death.

And numbers are exploding elsewhere in the state. This morning’s update listed 166 new cases in Flathead County, with 1,113 active cases, 162 in Missoula County, which has 1,272 active cases, 140 in Yellowstone County, which has the highest total of active cases in Montana with 2,197. Cascade County, which had 71 new cases listed on this morning’s update, had 1,032 active cases.

Yellowstone has had 22,714 total cases, Flathead 16,371 total cases, Missoula 12,678 and Cascade 12,421.

To slow the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, officials are urging people to stay home if they don’t feel well, to avoid crowds if they are out, to mask up when they are in public — including people who are vaccinated; the delta variant is more likely to be spread by vaccinated people than previous versions of the virus — to regularly wash their hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water or a hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol, regularly cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and getting vaccinated if they are not already.

The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has been fully authorized for people 16 and older and has emergency authorization for people 12 to 15 — the company is submitting test results to the federal government and hopes to have the vaccine authorized for children 5 to 11 soon — and the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines have emergency authorization for people 18 and older.

In Hill County, vaccinations are available through Bullhook Community Health Center, 406-395-4305; the Hill County Health Department, 406-400-2415; Northern Montana Health Care’s Specialty Medical Center at 406-265-7831 or its Family Medical Center at 406-265-5408; Western Drug Pharmacy, 406-265-9601; Gary & Leo’s Pharmacy, which takes walk-ins; Walmart; and the Rocky Boy Health Center, 406-395-1655.

Vaccinations are available in Blaine County through Blaine County Health Department, 406-357-2345, and Fort Belknap Health Center, 406-353-3219.

Vaccine is available in Chouteau County at the Chouteau County Health Department, 406-622-3771, and Big Sandy Pharmacy at 406-378-5588.

People can call Liberty County Health Department at 406-759-5517 to schedule a vaccination.