As of Friday, October 16, 2020, Montana reports 21,595 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 665 new cases reported in the last day: 135 in Yellowstone County, 61 in Flathead County, 47 in Cascade County, 43 in Gallatin County, 42 in Missoula County, 25 in Lewis & Clark County, 24 in Lake County, 23 in Valley County, 22 in Deer Lodge County, 21 in Big Horn County, 20 in Roosevelt County, and more new cases in 33 more Montana counties. Statewide, 986 people have been hospitalized, and 319 people are currently being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. There are 8,148 active coronavirus cases in Montana. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead, Glacier, Missoula, Cascade, and Gallatin Counties. 235 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 218,000 Americans have died. There have been 8,040,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday urged Americans to wear masks to fight the coronavirus, the illness which put him in intensive care for seven days, and warned that the virus is “something to take very seriously.” Christie was one of a number of people with ties to the White House who tested positive for the coronavirus at around the same time as President Donald Trump.
A rare COVID-19 complication first reported in children is showing up in adults. It was a rash that tipped off Dr. Alisa Femia. Femia was looking at a patient’s chart, which included several photos of the 45-year-old man who had, in recent weeks, cared for his wife while she was sick with COVID-19. The man had dusky-red circular patches on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. His eyes were pink, and his lips were extremely chapped. His body was erupting with the kind of extreme inflammation noted almost exclusively in children at the time. Dr. Femia recognized it as MIS-A. MIS-A stands for “multi-system inflammatory syndrome in adults.” When the condition was identified in children this spring, it was named MIS-C, with the C standing for “children.” Kids were developing dangerous inflammation around the heart and other organs, often weeks after their initial infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Twenty children have died who were sick with COVID-19 and developed rashes like the one Femia noted in her adult patient.
State legislators are weighing options for the 2021 regular session of the Montana Legislature, which calls to order January 4. Legislators hope to conduct a hybrid session, with the legislators, staff, lobbyists, and the public largely participating via remote meeting apps instead of gathering in person at the capitol in Helena. Close gatherings of people over even brief periods of time have spread coronavirus and sickened people with COVID-19. Some Republican state legislators have said that public health protocols like face masks and social distancing aren’t necessary, and that the governor’s declaration of a state of emergency to protect public health should be lifted. Medical professionals say that’s wrong. Half of the state’s 10 largest hospitals and four of the state’s smaller 49 critical access hospitals have more than 90% of their beds occupied.
Dr. Greg Tierney of Benefis Hospitals in Great Falls wrote to legislators. His letter reads:
As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens in Montana, hospitals across the state have become inundated, with our staff and supply resources stretched to their limits. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen an unprecedented number of COVID-19-positive patients in need of intensive treatment, with up to 84 hospitalized patients in Benefis facilities at a time. The use of cots to hold patients in the Benefis emergency department, along with the conversion of entire care units for the dedicated treatment of COVID-19-positive patients, have become necessary components of our daily operations.
Montana’s current State of Emergency has allowed hospitals the flexibility needed to deal with this crisis. Many facets of our current operations, ranging from bed placement plans to protections in place for long-term care residents, are made possible only through the regulatory exemptions put in place through the State of Emergency. Additionally, while historic telemedicine regulations have drastically limited our ability to utilize our virtual care infrastructure to its full capability, exceptions put into place via the State of Emergency have allowed us to use telemedicine in new ways, reaching immunocompromised patients in their homes to prevent their potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
In summary, the removal of Montana’s current State of Emergency would be disastrous for hospitals across the state, including Benefis Health System. This change would restrict our ability to continue serving the number of COVID-19-positive patients we currently have in our hospital and would only worsen the public health emergency we face.