MISSOULA — The bulk of Missoula County’s COVID-19 cases have surfaced in the 20 to 29-year-old age group until this week.
The Missoula City-County Health Department (MCCHD) reported Monday that there’s now an increase in people 70-to-79 as well as those who are 80 years or older.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that if the younger population experiences a spike in cases, you’ll then see that transmission into the older age demographic.
Missoula County Health Officer Ellen Leahy told MTN News they’re now seeing cases pop up in our long term and senior care facilities.
She’s also had to issue additional health orders for some of those places to double down on what are already cautious environments.
"We have eight facilities of all different types along this spectrum that are currently experiencing anything from one active case to over a dozen, and that's among staff and residents," Leahy explained. "Keep in mind that one of the reasons we know about the cases is because most of those places do conduct regular asymptomatic testing.
MCCHD works in an intervention fashion to issue new restrictions as each affected facility comes to their attention.
We could see the health department announce stricter guidelines across the board to all of those facilities as early as Tuesday.