Montana adds 1 more COVID-19 death, 41 new cases Monday

Montana listed one more death and 41 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, including another confirmed report for Cascade County.

Monday's news capped off what one Yellowstone County health official called the "deadliest week" yet for the state's most populous county, saying seven people had died due to a COVID-19-related illness.

The state now has 3,381 confirmed cases and 47 deaths attributed to the coronavirus. There are 2,090 people who have recovered from the respiratory illness and 1,244 active cases. There are 61 hospitalizations out of 201 people who have been hospitalized, according to the state website covid19.mt.gov.

RiverStone Health, Yellowstone County's public health department, said a woman in her 90s died Saturday at a Billings hospital. It was the 22nd death of a Yellowstone County resident from complications due to COVID-19.

John Felton, RiverStone president, said seven Yellowstone County residents had died since July 18, making it the deadliest week yet for the county. He urged people to remain vigilant, wear a mask, watch your distance, wash your hands and stay at home when sick.

The state has performed 158,655 COVID-19 tests, which is 6,340 more than what was reported Sunday.

Cascade County now has 71 active cases, 42 recoveries and two deaths out of 115 confirmed reports of the respiratory illness.

Yellowstone County reported 22 new cases, bringing its overall total to 893. Big Horn, added nine, making its total 226 and Gallatin added seven, making its total 774. Lake and Lewis and Clark counties each reported one new case.

Montana had its biggest single-day total ever with 217 cases on July 24. The previous high was 145 on July 14.

Gov. Steve Bullock issued a directive July 15, making masks mandatory in certain indoor spaces and at some outdoor activities in Montana counties with four or more active cases, effective immediately.

Bullock said Wednesday the state was entering into a partnership with Montana State University to begin surveillance testing next week, with a capability of testing 500 people per day. He was expected to tour the college's COVID-19 testing lab on Monday.

He said Quest Diagnostics, which the state used for community COVID-19 surveillance testing and snapshot events, recently said it would no longer be able to process Montana's tests for at least several weeks. He said the news hurt the state as it was making significant progress in reaching a 60,000 tests a month target.

He also said the state was entering into a contract with MAKO Medical, a North Carolina lab, that has said it will do 1,000 tests a day.

 Reporter Phil Drake is our eye on the state capitol. For tips, suggestions or comment, he can be reached at 406-231-9021 or pdrake@greatfallstribune.com.