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8 coronavirus cases linked to Choteau group home

Posted at 2:23 PM, Oct 03, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-03 21:23:35-04

The Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services has notified the Teton County Health Department of eight new coronavirus cases related to an outbreak at a group home in Choteau.

The Teton County Health Department released the details in a news release Friday evening (read it here).

The cases involved both residents and staff at the group-home facility. The name of the group home was not released by the health department.

One individual who tested positive has been hospitalized in Great Falls; the rest are experiencing "mild to no symptoms" and recovering at home, the release says. Contact tracing is underway. All close contacts have been notified and are quarantining, the release says.

The Teton County Health Department reports 16 active coronavirus cases in the county and 37 total as of Friday night.



There were 501 new cases and no new deaths added to the total on the Montana COVID-19 tracking site on Saturday morning. The data below is from the official Montana website on October 3:

  • TOTAL CASES & RECOVERIES: Montana now reports 14,356 cumulative cases statewide, with 9,601 people recovered.
  • HOSPITALIZATIONS: The state reports 189 current hospitalizations, and a cumulative total of 741 hospitalizations.
  • ACTIVE CASES: The state reports there are currently 4,569 active COVID-19 cases in Montana.
  • TESTING: The number of tests increased by 1,421 over the previous 24-hour reporting period, for a new cumulative state-wide total of 354,783.
  • DEATHS: The cumulative number of deaths in Montana is at 186.

Numbers reported by the state each day occasionally differ from those reported by county public health departments due to periodic lag times in reporting data to the state. We encourage people to check the official website and/or Facebook page of their respective county health department for any information that is not yet included in the state's daily updates.



CDC: The federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) released data last month which emphasizes that people with contributing or underlying medical conditions are at much greater risk of dying from COVID-19. According to the CDC, an estimated 94% of all COVID-related deaths in the nation were people who had contributing medical conditions and diseases. The CDC report states: "For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death." The report states that the most common underlying medical conditions that contributed to COVID-related deaths include respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, asthma, and COPD; diabetes; hyptertensive diseases; and heart disease. Click here to learn more on the CDC website.

The CDC also recently released an update to their research into fatality rates associated with COVID-19. A summary of COVID-19 survival rates is shown below; the summary is one of five based on several scenarios. The CDC data and scenarios can be found here.

COVID-19 Survival Rates

  • Age 0-19: 99.997%
  • Age 20-49: 99.98%
  • Age 50-69: 99.5%
  • Age 70+: 94.6%

The CDC says the scenarios are intended to advance public health preparedness and planning, and are not predictions or estimates of the expected impact of COVID-19. The parameter values in each scenario will be updated and augmented over time, as the agency learns more about the epidemiology of COVID-19. The update from September 10th is based on data received by the CDC through August 8.