Valley County reports two COVID-19 cases, two active cases in Furgus County as national cases continue to rise

While Phillips County continues to have no positive COVID-19 tests, the surrounding areas haven’t been as fortunate as both Valley and Furgus County now have confirmed, active cases and on Monday morning saw the largest single-day increase in cases since the pandemic started.

On Sunday night, the Valley County Health Department released a press release announcing that their second and third cases of COVID-19 have been reported nearly a week after learning of their first positive case (the man, in his 60s, is not currently in Valley County, according to that Health Department.) The two new cases in Valley County are a 20-year-old female and a man in his 30s. Both people are isolating at home. The Montana Response web page shows just one active case in Valley County.

In Fergus County, southwest of Phillips County, a female aged 60-69 and a male aged 70-79 were confirmed to have the virus and both cases are listed as active on the Montana Response web page.

Statewide, there have been a total of 919 confirmed cases as of June 27 resulting in 22 deaths. Of the 919 cases, 609 have recovered (and a total of 88,743 test have been administered since March 12 of this year when testing began.) There are currently 288 cases in Montana and both Yellowstone and Gallatin Counties have the largest active case totals with 55. Total hospitalizations are at 100.

The spike in COVID-19 cases follows weeks of little to no positive cases in Montana for much of May and June. The nation’s seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases as of Monday increased more than 42-percent compared with a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins data, reaching an average of nearly 38,200 daily new cases.

The Valley County Health Department recommends continuing protective COVID-19 precautions including staying at home if you are sick, monitoring for symptoms, washing your hands, and covering your cough.