As of Thursday, October 22, 2020, Montana reports 25,640 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the highest number of new coronavirus cases yet recorded in Montana, 932 new cases reported in the last day: 173 in Yellowstone County, 112 in Flathead County, 100 in Gallatin County, 96 in Missoula County, 89 in Cascade County, 42 in Roosevelt County, 27 in Custer County, 26 in Lewis & Clark County, 23 in Hill County, 20 in Big Horn County, 17 in Ravalli County, 14 in Carter County, and more new cases in 35 more Montana counties. Statewide, 1,091 people have been hospitalized, and 353 people are currently being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. There are 9,096 active coronavirus cases in Montana. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead and Glacier, Missoula, Cascade, and Lewis & Clark Counties. 287 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 222,000 Americans have died. There have been 8,400,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

The CDC has updated its guidance on close contacts of people with coronavirus and emphasizes the importance of wearing masks and physical distancing. The new guidance expands the pool of people now considered at-risk for infection and could affect how people gather as the weather grows cooler. The new CDC standard changes the definition of a “close contact” of a COVID-19 case to a person who has been within 6 feet of an infected person for a total of at least 15 minutes in a day. That includes multiple, but brief, encounters of one or two minutes at a time. Previously, a close contact was defined as spending 15 consecutive minutes with a COVID-19 patient. Now, infectious disease experts say that “Cumulative [short duration] exposures can be as hazardous as 15 sustained continuous minutes of exposure.”

The CDC made the change after a COVID-19 outbreak in a Vermont correctional facility. At the end of July, six new prisoners arrived at the facility and were placed in a quarantine unit while awaiting COVID-19 test results. None had any symptoms, but the next day, all six tested positive. A corrections officer was in contact with the prisoners, but the officer’s interactions with the prisoners were so brief — about one minute at a time — that they were considered low risk. The corrections officer was carrying coronavirus but was at the time asymptomatic. About a week later, the officer started having symptoms of COVID-19. He tested positive for coronavirus. His only contact with confirmed cases were the brief visits with the six prisoners.

A policy intended to subvert contact tracing of students in Billings schools was ended after a New York Times story. Administrators in at least two Billings high schools have been asking educators to shuffle students in classrooms to avoid having them register as a close contact of potential COVID-19 positive cases. The emails from administrators show that in some schools, the rule translated into a game of musical chairs every 14 minutes. School officials emails read in part, “Please be practicing with your classes moving every 14 minutes when students are closer than 6 feet apart and with each other for 15 minutes or more. Do this to protect them from Close Contact Tracing. The school district supervisor said that trying to circumvent contact tracing was not the district’s intent., but his email read in part, “In an effort to continue to combat the COVID-19 virus, I want to remind everyone of the definition of a close contact. A close contact is an individual or individuals who are within 6 feet for 15 continuous minutes of a person who is identified as an active case.” So the school district said to move students around every 14 minutes.

The Montana Racial Equity Project is urging schools to close for in-person learning and go to remote learning only as COVID-19 cases rise and heavily impact Indigenous and Black families. The coronavirus sickness and mortality rate experienced by people of color is higher than in the caucasian population. The Montana Racial Equity Project says public schools should be closed to protect families.

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