Missoula City-County Health Department Incident Commander Cindy Farr held her daily briefing for COVID-19 on Friday and discussed the confusion around what the local health department the need for testing supplies locally.
Missoula County is reporting 28 cases of COVID-19, with one death in the county and 22 people recovered from the illness with 120 people self-isolating due to coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
Farr also addresses the supplies at local health level and the state lab level.
According to Farr the state labs are well supplied while the local medical community is experiencing shortage of supplies.
The Missoula City-County Health Department started the new drive-up clinic with 200 supplies for people and the ordered 3,000 new kits, but that order is now on backorder, leading the health department to look for other sources for supplies. resource issues
Farr also addressed the peak of coronavirus in Missoula County, Farr said it can be very hard to tell when the county has peaked due to the variable and litte amount of information about how the virus spreads, and how immunity works, thus there is not a definite answer.
What models can show, Farr says is how social distancing and self-isolation helps and are very important.
Farr also mentioned they are learning more about the virus everyday and also allows them to respond to the new information accordingly.
Farr wants to remind Missoulians that to decrease the cases and prevent later spikes in the spread of COVID-19 is to stay home and behavior changes may have to be implemented when businesses reopen in the future.
Anyone who has arrived in Missoula County after having traveled out of state in the past 14 days is asked to contact local health officials at (406) 258-3896. This applies to all travel, including vehicle travel.
The Missoula County COVID-19 info line can be reached by calling (406) 258-INFO weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Additional local information about the coronavirus situation can be found here.
Gov. Steve Bullock’s orders closing public schools and requiring people to stay home -- except for essential activities -- has been extended until April 24.
