As of Saturday, July 18, 2020, Montana reports 2,471 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 106 new cases reported in the last day: 30 new cases in Yellowstone County, 19 new cases in Gallatin County, 11 in Flathead County, 10 in Hill County, 9 in Missoula County, 7 new cases in Big Horn County, 4 new cases in each of Cascade and Madison Counties, 3 new cases in Beaverhead County, 2 new cases in Lewis & Clark, Lincoln, and Silver Bow Counties, and 1 new case in each of Custer, Garfield, and Ravalli Counties. Statewide, 164 people have been hospitalized, and 46 people are currently being treated in the hospital for COVID-19. Yellowstone County has had 682 cases so far, surpassing Gallatin County, with 563 cases so far. The most active cases are in Yellowstone County, with 452 active cases. Gallatin County has 304 active cases. Statewide there are 1,359 active cases, and 1,075 people have recovered. 37 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 141,000 Americans have died.

A Montana State Hospital employee has tested positive for COVID-19. The hospital in Warm Springs offers inpatient psychiatric treatment for adults experiencing serious mental illness. The person is believed to have contracted the virus through a family member and is in quarantine.

In recent days, coronavirus testing of asymptomatic people in Montana has become more difficult. Now, Quest Diagnostics, the private company that processes tests from the state’s surveillance testing events, has said it won’t be able to process tests from those events for two to three weeks because of a nationwide backlog. As a result, some upcoming testing events may be canceled. Quest will still process the tests it has received from previous events, including one in Big Sky two weeks ago for which results have not yet been returned. Quest is the contract lab where Montana sent most of the tests from mass surveillance and sentinel testing events around the state. Governor Bullock said, “When it takes a week to 10 days or more to provide results back on tests, it really is of more limited value to Montanans.” The state is now working to expand the state lab’s capacity and may contract with another out-of-state lab to ensure testing can continue. Tests for symptomatic people generally go to the state public health laboratory in Helena, which kept a faster turnaround time of about a day or two.

Bozeman Health confirmed this week that 15 of its employees have tested positive for the virus. Bozeman Health announced in March when its first employee had tested positive for the virus, but had not announced the others. Bozeman Health declined to say when in the last three months each of the 15 employees tested positive. The health care system operates multiple clinics in Gallatin County. The hospital in Bozeman would not identify which departments the employees work in or in which facilities they work. Bozeman Health also declined to disclose the employees’ conditions, how many people were in close contact with the confirmed cases, or if other cases have been tied to these employees.