Our View - Personal responsibility can stop COVID-19

With numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths continuing to go up in this region and across Montana and the nation, people need to follow Gov. Greg Gianforte’s request and use personal responsibility to deal with this pandemic.

And the numbers are going up faster than they did a year ago despite people being vaccinated and many people already having had the disease, which also increases resistance, although not as much as vaccination, health experts say.

Hill County is reported to have 6,914 people fully vaccinated, 52 percent of its eligible population, and reported Friday that 3,014 cases have been confirmed in the county since March 2020.

A year ago, 369 cases had been confirmed in Hill County residents and the vaccine was not yet available so no one was vaccinated.

At that point, Hill County had 155 active cases with three active hospitalizations and seven deaths.

So far in October, as of Friday’s update from Hill County Health Department, Hill County has seen 148 new cases and Friday had 14 active hospitalizations. It has seen 10 deaths since the virus started surging again the first week of August, bringing the county total to 56 COVID-19-related deaths and had 191 active cases Friday.

Hill County has seen almost 1,000 new cases since Havre Daily News resumed daily data reports Aug. 6, with 953 new cases since then. That number is mostly in unvaccinated people and people who have not had COVID-19 previously — less than half of the population of the county is still creating higher numbers than a year ago.

And the rest of the region also continues to see an increase, with Blaine, Chouteau and Liberty counties reporting 598 confirmed cases since Aug. 6 but, thankfully, so far only reporting one new COVID-19-related death. That also is despite the number of vaccinated people and the total number of previously confirmed cases — the three counties have a combined total of 2,121 confirmed cases since March 2020 and 33 deaths.

While numbers of new cases and deaths appear to finally be dropping in some parts of the United States, that is not the case in Montana with the state numbers also surging. Friday’s update listed 1,315 newly confirmed cases, 12,539 active and 463 active hospitalizations. It listed 2,019 deaths. That is 357 additional deaths and 40,789 new cases since Aug. 6, and more than 7,000 new cases and more than 60 deaths this month alone.

Last year, the state didn’t have vaccines — they weren’t approved until late December — but mandates were in place including quarantines, limits on sizes of gatherings and people needing to wear masks.

Gov. Gianforte said he doesn’t believe in mandates and lifted those, instead urging people to use personal responsibility to slow the spread of the virus and the deadly disease it causes.

People need to follow the governor’s request and be responsible.

People who are sick, including children need to stay home. If they are exposed to the virus, they should quarantine for at least 10 days if they are not vaccinated. And if they are vaccinated they should get a COVID-19 test.

People should avoid getting together in large crowds, and if they are out in public should wear a mask, vaccinated or not. The highly contagious delta variant causing this surge — twice as contagious as previous variants — is much more likely to be spread by anyone, including vaccinated people. Previous variants were unlikely to be spread by vaccinated people but the delta variant changed that.

And everyone who can should get vaccinated. The U.S.-approved vaccines have been shown to be extremely safe and extremely effective — and soon, it appears, will be approved for everyone 5 and older. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are now approved for anyone 18 and older and the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 12 and older.

People in this area, in the state and in the nation can beat this pandemic if we all do our part.