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BOZEMAN – Gallatin City-County health manager Lori Christensen and MSU’s Tracy Ellig provided COVID updates on Friday, urging the community to remain vigilant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as cases in the county slowly increase.
On Monday, July 26, the Gallatin City-County health department reported 24 new cases of COVID – the highest number of new cases in two months. As of Wednesday, July 28, the total number of active cases had risen to 83 in the county, with six people currently hospitalized.
The Department of Health is reporting a 50% increase in active cases since July 17, when it reported 35 active cases. Additionally, immunization data indicates that only 55% of Gallatin County residents are fully immunized and 97% of hospitalizations from April 1 to July 9 were unvaccinated.
The federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday it had updated its guidelines for fully vaccinated people given the available evidence on the Delta variant currently circulating in the United States.
In addition to other updates, the CDC added a recommendation for fully vaccinated people – as well as their existing recommendation for unvaccinated people – to wear a mask in indoor public places in areas with “high or high transmission. “.
These new guidelines categorize areas of substantial or high transmission based on cases per 100,000 in the past seven days.
According to CDC criteria, Gallatin County is currently considered to have significant transmission.
Christenson said: “It is important to note that based on the local epidemiology and the sequential level of transmission described on the CDC website, Gallatin County could quickly go from moderate, substantial or high. Depending on the size of our population, one or two cases per day could cause us to go up or down from the current scale. “
She added, “Instead of focusing on the day-to-day movements between categories, it is important to understand that we are seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases in our community. Every layer of protection counts right now, and that means removing these masks and wearing them in indoor public places, regardless of your immunization status, especially when Gallatin County is in the substantial or high transmission category. Given where we are now and what we are trying to prevent in the future, I would anticipate the recommendation to wear a mask to stay until we see the number of cases drop again. “
Children aged 2 to 11 are not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at this time and should wear masks and remember the importance of good hand washing practices.
Click here for details on the Healthy Gallatin website (PDF).
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