COVID-19 update: County adjusts virus fatality numbers

Health officials last week adjusted Lake County’s number of COVID-19 deaths following a comparison of separate sets of state mortality data.

Lake County Public Health announced that six additional deaths are being considered related to the pandemic. Health Services Director Emily Colomeda said all six were individuals age 70-90. The new cases involved three males and three females, with two deaths coming in October, three in November and one in January, Colomeda said.

The six additional deaths bring the counties total to 26 fatalities since the pandemic emerged early in 2020. Two of Lake County’s fatalities were among people in their 50s, while all others were in their 60s to 90s.

“The state health department has been reconciling death data with Vital Statistics and has identified a number of individuals who have COVID listed as primary or contributing cause of death on their death certificate that are not recorded in the infectious disease database,” Colomeda said Friday.

“County and state public health routinely reconcile death records for all reportable diseases. For example, this process occurs every influenza season to ensure that the correct number of deaths due to the disease are identified and reported. The reconciliation process is also ongoing for COVID-19 cases, and a recent review of records identified 6 COVID-19 related deaths in our county.”

Vaccination remains in phase 1B

Lake County remains in phase 1B of its vaccination plan, with doses currently going to people age 70 years and older; American Indians and other people of color who may be at elevated risk for COVID-19 complications; and people age 16-69 with high-risk medical conditions. A list of such conditions is available at lakecountypublichealth.org.

People age 60 and older are in Montana's phase 1C, which the state health department estimates will begin in mid- to late spring.

As of Tuesday, 110,351 vaccine doses had been administered across Montana, with 27,506 individuals considered fully immunized (current vaccines require two doses spread out over time).

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Tribal Health Department is conducting an online symposium via Facebook at 3 p.m. Friday to answer COVID-19 vaccination questions. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions in advance at the department’s Facebook page.

“As far as vaccinations are concerned, we continue to take calls from Lake County residents that fall into the Phase 1B category,” Colomeda said. “They are placed on a list by date that they called, and health department staff are calling them to schedule an appointment for COVID vaccine. Initially we were offering appointments on Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons as staffing allowed. We have since expanded those clinics (thanks to the many nurse volunteers that offered their help) to include full-day clinics (8:30 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 4:30 p.m.) with appointments every 10 minutes to be able to accommodate 80 vaccinations per week.

“So far, the health department has received all the vaccines we have requested, but that is based on the number of injections we can give in a one- to two-week period. We are not ordering vaccines if we are unable to give it within that time frame. Vaccine allocations depend on what the State Health Department receives each week from the feds and the demand from the local vaccine providers.”

County’s active cases dropping

Health officials on Tuesday announced the county had 50 active cases and one current hospitalization. There had been at least 100 active cases for a span of several months last fall, and hospitalizations spiked at around 16 in November.

Lake County has recorded 1,928 cases overall, with 1,852 recoveries so far.

Meanwhile, quarantine numbers at the county’s school districts also are sharply down. The St. Ignatius School District on Tuesday reported just one active case, a student who also is the district’s only individual on quarantine.

The Polson School District reports four students and one staff member as active cases, with 19 individuals on quarantine. The district had more than 200 people quarantined in early December.

The Ronan School District’s most recent update, published Friday, lists four active cases, two students and one staff member at Ronan High School and one staff member at K. William Harvey. The district had 20 individuals on quarantine as of Friday.

New COVID-19 open enrollment period

The federal government has created a new opportunity to enroll in health insurance for 2021 on HealthCare.gov, but only for a limited time. The new COVID-19 open enrollment period starts Feb. 15 and ends May 15.

Anyone in Montana can call (406) 430-0005 to reserve a telephone appointment with MT Navigator, a non-profit enrollment assistance group, to get free enrollment assistance. Consultations are available over the telephone or through a telehealth option which will allow callers to see their application completed in real-time. There is no charge for enrollment assistance