My county of 161,300 as of 2019 was down to only 2 active cases and in the last week has seen that increase to 14. Now before anyone goes oh my that is a case to start shutting things down let's take a look at the numbers
14 total active cases
2 cases prior to June 1
12 cases reported between June 1 and June 6 as the previous days numbers are reported at 10 am local time statewide
1 case reported in a prisoner held at the county jail (which happens to hold those sentenced for shorter sentences from several smaller surrounding counties as well as those on pretrial holdings for violent crimes from those counties and those from the smaller counties sentenced for transport to the state prison due to a combination of lack of space and security at the smaller counties jail facilities) for a federal law enforcement agency not specified-person has since been moved by the federal law enforcement agency to their location.
11 cases remaining now
8 cases of inmates currently in the county jail
3 cases remaining
1 case of a jail employee (there were 2 previous employee cases in March with 0 spread to the jail population)
2 cases remaining that are unknown if connected to either the jail employee or the 2 that were active cases prior to June 1 or additional inmates in the jail.
The jail has issolated the 8 that are positive in a separate unit. Those who have symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath, ect but have not tested positive and were in the same unit as all the inmates who tested positive are issolated in a seperate unit, and those remaining in the unit where the 9 (8 jail inmates plus 1 hold) tested positive are being kept seperate from the general population. There is also a full time medical staff at the jail to monitor both the positive as well as symptomatic cases and a unit for each gender where incoming inmates are held for a period of observation of 2-5 days due to space before being moved to one of the units. Our county sherriff has indicated that no additional inmates will be placed in the unit where the cases occured until they know for certain that there are no additional cases in an effort to contain the spread. We have had a total case count in my county of 105 cases since since the first case reported in Montana on March 3 with a total of 3 of the 18 deaths 2 of which were those living on a part of a reservation in my county. The other was an elder person.
The other area of a large spread is a neighboring county which has a population of 13,388 as of 2018 with 70.57% of the county comprising land for two native american reservations. There is significant community spread in that county which currently has 24 active cases, 39 total cases and 1 death.
If you read this article about everything this remarkable young lady has had to overcome in her life to fullfill a dream you will learn a lot about how life is on the reservations and how quickly a disease can spread in that type of environment.
https://billingsgazette.com/news/st...l7l6i4Y2eqcTqVbXYjqi-yZteaViiDrVeJ-vavPaCd2ZM
while it is good that the community steps in to take care of children and youth when the parents are unable to due to their own problems and this care extends to others in the community as well in cases where there is illness it also means that the illness is being passed around from household to household at a higher rate than the general population.
While most of MT is on phase 2 of reopening this county has gone back to a combination of lockdown and phase 1 with resturants in the little over 29% of the county that is not reservation land on phase 1 to include only 25% capacity and no more than 6 at a table with all tables located 6 feet from each other and those on the reservations restricted to take out (delivery due to distance is very limited to the few blocks that make up a town so is not advertised) only no dining in-this was a decision made in the conjunction with the tribal governments of both tribes who requested the stricter standards in an attempt to stop or at least slow the community spread within their respective tribes. Per Montana Governor executive orders on reopening both counties and native american tribes can impose stricter guidelines than what is outlined in the state including tribes can maintain checkpoints along any and all highways that transpose their land to inquire abou the business of motorists going across their land and perform tempature checks. They can only let those who register a tempature greater than their set limit (not sure if it is 100.0 or 100.4) know where the closest testing facilites are located in their county or in neighboring counties. They can escort those driving from one side of the reservation to the other through as well as closing off any public recreation areas on or accessed through the reservation in order to stop travelers who are asymptomatic from bringing sickness into their community. Most of these recreation areas that are on or accessed through reservations are on county roads that have an indication of inquire locally before travel year round and the law enforcement of both the tribal and the counties that make up the reservations is limited. Even the small portion of a reservation that is in my county which being one of the highest populated counties has a significantly large sheriff dept and 2 of our "cities" having a seperate police force as well there is only 1-2 deputies patrolling the area at a time depending on the time of day. Additional help is 30-90 minutes away. The tribal law enforcement is spread even more thin with sometimes 1-2 officers covering over 3000 sq miles and they are limited to what they can do regarding law enforcement compared to other areas and at time are restricted to basically doing a citizens arrest situation until back up from the local county or state (highway patrol) law enforcement agency arrives.
