BOZEMAN — Recently, you may have noticed more and more folks wearing masks. And that's because flu and Covid numbers have been on the rise here in Gallatin County. So, I spoke to one school nurse to see if those numbers have been reflected in the classrooms.
“Would you say the number of kids coming in here rises around flu season?” I asked Nurse Rebecca Spear. “Oh, absolutely yeah,” she replied.
Nurse Spear is the district nurse for BSD7 schools—work she’s enjoyed doing for the last 17 years. Spear tells me since the kids got back from break?
“I would say we see about 20 to 30 kids a day at least, at both high schools."
So, what's been going around?
“We have had a fair amount of kids out with, I would say, both Covid and influenza. And in addition, just kind of colds. I’ve had a couple kids in here this morning that don’t really have voices,” says Nurse Spear.
I asked Nurse Spear if this is more than normal.
“I would say we’re peaking maybe right now. Coughs and colds might be a little bit more than normal,” she says.
And I was curious if we’re seeing peak Covid and flu season across the valley, so I headed over to Healthy Gallatin to get the stats.
“Last year this was about the time of year that we did peak, so hopefully we’ll see these cases start turning down here soon,” says Joanna Fink, epidemiologist for the Gallatin City-County Health Department.
Fink shared data from the most recent Gallatin County Weekly Communicable Disease Report. It stated about 130 cases of Covid were reported in December, an increase of about 73% from the levels reported in November. But for the flu? We had about 379 cases reported in December, which is a 3,600% increase from November.
And now that we’re in January?
“We’re still seeing the levels rise. Mostly for flu, Covid’s kind of stayed steady. So far, we’re only seeing a handful of cases a day, I’d say,” says Fink.
Although flu and Covid numbers are down from last year, there are some other concerning outbreaks that have seen a significant increase.
“We’ve also seen pertussis that's been included in our communicable disease report for several weeks,” says Fink.
Since September, Gallatin County has seen around 45 cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough. That's compared to 2023, which saw 6 cases total.
And that’s not all that's going around.
“Norovirus is nationally going around too. The CDC says that as of the last week of December, about 22% of tests of norovirus were positive,” Fink says.
That amount is up 12% from last year. It's a virus Nurse Spear can confirm took a toll on Gallatin County schools, as well.
“The norovirus was more than usual this fall. We’ve never had to shut down a school due to norovirus, which is what we had to do right before break,” says Nurse Spear.
As we reach peak season, Fink and Nurse Spear want to remind the public to stay home if you feel sick—and especially, make sure you’re washing your hands!
“At the elementary school, we always tell the kids to sing the ABCs all the way through while they’re washing their hands. Generally, we tell people 20 seconds,” says Fink.
