As of Saturday, October 24, 2020, Montana reports 27,142 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 647 new cases reported in the last day: 109 in Gallatin County, 108 in Big Horn County, 67 in Flathead County, 66 in Yellowstone County, 33 in Lewis & Clark County, 22 in Missoula County, 22 in Roosevelt and in Ravalli County, 20 in Silver Bow County, 18 in Cascade County, 14 in Dawson and in Stillwater Counties, 12 in Hill County, 11 in Beaverhead County, and more new cases in 29 more Montana counties. Statewide, 1,180 people have been hospitalized, and 348 people currently are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. There are 9,412 active coronavirus cases in Montana. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead and Glacier, Missoula, Cascade, Lewis & Clark and Gallatin Counties. 294 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 225,000 Americans have died. There have been 8,640,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.
More than 100 coronavirus cases and 3 deaths are linked to a North Carolina church multi-day event. The outbreak is linked to the United House of Prayer for All People in Charlotte, which held convocations from Oct. 4 to Oct. 11. Around the country, church events have been linked to several coronavirus outbreaks. In Maine, more than 40 people tested positive for the virus after Brooks Pentecostal Church in Waldo County held a fellowship rally earlier this month. Maine’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah said that about 100 to 150 people attended the rally and masks were available, but not routinely used. And at least 10 cases have been tied to Calvary Baptist Church, also in Maine, after its pastor officiated an indoor wedding that has since been labeled a superspreader event linked to over a hundred infections and at least eight deaths. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said one outbreak at a church in Ohio County “spread like wildfire” after a man with the virus attended a single church service leading to at least 91 infections across five counties.
Health experts are voicing concerns about the looming combination of colder weather and holiday gatherings, which have the potential to contribute to a massive rise in coronavirus infections. Covid-19 cases are rising across nearly 75 percent of the country — a “distressing trend,” said Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. “Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, I see potentially six weeks of superspreader events.” A superspreader event refers to a situation in which a gathering of people results in a large number of infections. Gregg Gonsalves, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Yale, said that while he didn’t want to be “the Grinch who stole Christmas,” it may not be safe to celebrate the holidays with large family gatherings this year. “It’s the height of flu season, and we’ve seen research that family gatherings even in the summer have been a source of outbreaks,” he said.
Montana State University added 99 new cases this week — the largest single-week total since the health department began reporting campus data on Aug. 1. As of Friday, MSU had 71 active COVID-19 cases with a total to date of 381 cases. Twelve Gallatin County K-12 schools had a total of 21 active cases as of Friday. The county’s positivity rate has continued to climb and is now 13.6%, a sign that more testing is needed and that the disease is widespread.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda tests positive for coronavirus
Duda’s diagnosis comes amid a huge surge in the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 and deaths in Poland. In nearby Slovenia, Foreign Minister Anze Logar also tested positive for the coronavirus.