The City-County Health Department in Great Falls on Friday announced the fourth COVID-19-related death in Cascade County. In a news release, the agency said it was man over the age of 65 with "underlying health conditions."
The CCHD says that this death is not related to the recent outbreak in a Cascade County long-term care facility. Out of respect for the family, the CCHD said that no additional information will be released.
Trisha Gardner, the Health Officer for Cascade County, said, “My heart goes out to the family and friends who are grieving this man’s death. To honor the people whose deaths have been caused by COVID-19, I ask our community to continue to fight the spread of this virus. It’s still here with us, and we can protect our own parents and grandparents and neighbors by taking prevention seriously.”
To date, there have been 162 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cascade County. Of those, 108 have recovered, four have died, and 50 are currently considered to be active.
On Thursday, the CCHD announced the third death in the county related to COVID-19, and said that the third death was a man over the age of 65 who also had underlying health conditions." That death was related to the recent outbreak in a long-term care facility in the county. The first COVID-related death in Cascade County was a woman over the age of 65 on April 17th; the second was a man over the age of 65 on April 20th.
The CCHD on Tuesday identified an outbreak of six COVID-19 cases in connection with the long-term care facility. Due to federal privacy regulations (HIPAA), the CCHD has not released the name of the facility or any other details. Similar situations occurred at such facilities in both Shelby and in Billings; in both of those cases, the facilities issued public statements about their situations.
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Health officials on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation on Thursday confirmed the deaths of two men due to "contributing factors related to COVID-19." In a news release, the Rocky Boy Health Center in Box Elder said that one man was in his 50s and one man was in his 60s, adding that both men had "underlying health conditions." These are the first deaths reported on the reservation. No other details have been released.
Montana added 155 new cases to the total on the Montana Response COVID-19 tracking map on Friday morning. Numbers reported by the state each day occasionally differ from those reported by county public health departments due to periodic lag times in reporting data to the state. The data below is from the official Montana website on August 7th, and do NOT reflect the most recent Cascade County death.
- TOTAL CASES & RECOVERIES: Montana now reports 4,757 cumulative cases statewide, with 3,122 people recovered.
- HOSPITALIZATIONS: There are currently 84 patients hospitalized. There have been 264 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
- ACTIVE CASES: The state reports there are currently 1,565 active COVID-19 cases in Montana.
- TESTING: The number of tests increased by 1,941 over the previous 24-hour reporting period, for a new cumulative state-wide total of 187,756.
- DEATHS: The cumulative number of deaths in Montana is now 70.