Fourth highest COVID-19

Madison County has the fourth highest COVID-19 cases per capita in the state as of July 21.

The county has 16 active cases, adding four new cases over the weekend. Forty-seven Madison County residents and 11 non-residents have tested positive for COVID-19 in Madison County since the pandemic started, according to the Madison County Public Health Department. Two temporary staff members have joined MCPHD to help with the workload and speed of disseminating information.

“We’re ahead of Gallatin County and Yellowstone County, which isn’t a place we want to be at,” Madison County Public Health Nurse Melissa Brummel said.

Madison County has an average of 511 cases per capita, which is over double the average for the state. Montana has an average of 222 cases per capita, with a little over 2,700 COVID-19 cases total.

Since July 14, an additional 95 Madison County residents have been put into quarantine due to close contacts with known positive cases. The total number of quarantined individuals fluctuates daily. People quarantine for at least two weeks of being contacted and are released if they are not showing symptoms of infection.

According to MCPHD, the labs are backordered about three weeks. MCPHD is expecting the number of cases to increase as they await the results from the surveillance testing July 10. Four of the 376 surveillance testing have come back with results. A few of the surveillance tests were untestable, which can occur due to not enough mucus on the sample or a lab error. MCPHD will inform those individuals about their untestable results.

“We have to social distance,” Brummel said. “We’re going to need to see a lot more people wearing masks if we want to see our businesses stay open and our schools to open.”