KALISPELL — Health officials are seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases in Flathead County.
Flathead County Public Health Officer Tamalee Robinson says a combined 47 positive cases were confirmed on Thursday and Friday. Robinson says a high number of positive cases are being reported in younger individuals.
She says the recent uptick is not tied to certain events or specific locations but rather community spread.
As of Friday, Flathead County has 180 active cases and eight hospitalizations.
Robinson says the high number of cases has led to hundreds of new close contacts needing to be monitored.
“We’re monitoring 549 contacts, and those are people who are contacts to positive cases, so that is taking a lot of our time," said Robinson. "We’re hiring additional staff at the health department to help both with contact tracing and with monitoring.”
Robinson encourages Flathead residents to stay home if you’re feeling sick and to continue practicing social distancing measures.