MADISON COUNTY CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

A former employee at the Tobacco Root Mountains Care Center in Sheridan tested positive for COVID-19 Sept. 3.

The positive COVID result came after the former employee had stopped working at the Sheridan nursing home. It is unclear if the asymptomatic case was present while contagious. But the Madison County Public Health Department’s contact tracing investigation led to the nursing home testing every staff member and its 22 residents.

According to Madison County Public Health Nurse Melissa Brummel, no additional positive cases in the nursing home have been detected from the first round of tests. Residents and staff will be tested at least two more times this week.

No further information is likely to be disclosed about the former employee. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is especially tricky in small towns. MCPHD has to be careful to not disclose any potentially identifying information about patients. In a small town, where everybody knows everybody, health departments have to be more vague about COVID cases than other more populated areas.

Madison County’s active COVID-19 cases continue to decline. The county has gone from the third highest case rate in the state to the seventh, which reflects the small decline within the county and an increase of cases in other counties. Madison county has two active cases as of Sept. 8. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 95 residents have tested positive for COVID. Most of the county’s cases are between the ages of 50 and 79 but ranges to children and people in their 80s.

Montana has had 119 people die from the novel virus, including a Madison County resident.