COVID Still on the Rise in Country and State
The latest data
By Denise Rivette
The rates of COVID-19 continue to rise in Montana and throughout the country due mostly to FLiRT variants, a group of highly transmissible sibling strains that have overtaken last winter’s most dominant strain, JN.1. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that KP.3 and KP3.1.1 are the FLiRT variants currently surging. Hundreds of COVID deaths are still reported every week across the country. Reporting across the country indicates that some of those afflicted with the new variants report mild cold-like symptoms while others are miserable for days, with some reporting worse symptoms than from other bouts with the virus. The CDC reports there is no indication that these variants produce more severe illness.
“It does seem like we are spitting out more and more variants a lot more quickly, and that’s probably to be expected,” Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanence Southern California, told Rong-Gong Lin II of the Los Angeles Times. “This virus is still very, very new to humans, and the virus wants to live, and the way that it lives is by evading immunity (circumventing people’s defenses by evolving in a way to keep the chain of infection going)”.
New guidelines from the CDC advise that people who test positive stay home and stay away from others (including those in the same household). According to the CDC, after testing positive you can resume normal activities when both of the following statements have been true for at least 24 hours:
Your symptoms are getting better overall; and
You do not have a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication)
When you return to your normal activities, you should take added precautions over the next five days, such as masking, physical distancing and testing.
COVID -19
Cases Reported in Montana (data reporting lags behind testing results)
Reported July 26 - 354 cases
Reported July 19 - 340 cases
Reported July 12 - 243 cases
Reported July 5 - 235 cases
Reported June 28 - 186 cases
Reported June 21 - 167 cases
Reported June 14 - 131 cases
Reported June 7 - 125 cases
Reported May 31 - 61 cases
Information on reported cases from Montana Department of Health and Human Services.
KFF Health News has produced a slide show with information including the new CDC guidelines. You can see the slideshow HERE.