Covid cases shut down Chiefs basketball

An outbreak of COVID-19 cases within the Ronan High School boys basketball program led to the postponement of two events last week, a road game Thursday at Columbia Falls and another Saturday at St. Ignatius.

The school district’s weekly report shows four new cases among students and two among staff members for the period of Jan. 10-14. Districtwide, 113 cases have been reported this school year — 37 at the middle school, 33 at the high school, 24 at K. William Harvey Elementary, 20 at Pablo Elementary and nine among district staff.

The four cases reported at the high school last week were the most for a single week since late September and early October, when 13 cases were announced over a three-week period.

The Ronan boys basketball team last played a game Jan. 11 against Arlee. They are scheduled to take the court again Friday at Whitefish.

No other Lake County schools have announced significant surges of the virus among athletic teams, though outbreaks at Plains and Superior forced the postponement of multiple games with Lake County opponents last weekend.

Meanwhile, the Polson School District on Tuesday was reporting six new student cases and two new staff cases across the district over the previous seven days. The Polson district has reported 162 student cases and 37 staff cases since the beginning of the school year. Fifty-one of those student cases were at the middle school, followed by 45 at the high school, 40 at Linderman Elementary and 26 at Cherry Valley, which has the most staff cases with 13.

The state was reporting 180 active cases in Lake County on Tuesday, with 91 total deaths and 5,104 cumulative cases. The county’s total active cases had dropped to single digits late last summer.

Lake County has a 58% vaccination rate, five points higher than the state average, according to Montana’s coronavirus response website.

Free tests on the way

Gov. Greg Gianforte announced last week plans to increase access to at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen tests for Montanans.

Gianforte said 650,000 free tests will be distributed statewide through local public health departments. The state ordered the tests from Medea Medical Products for approximately $5.5 million, or about $8.46 per test.

“As the state of Montana, like the rest of the nation, faces a new surge with the omicron variant, testing is a critical tool to help keep people safe with early detection,” Gianforte said.

The federal government began offering free home tests this week as well. Households can request four free home tests by visiting https://t.co/6vn5toiCxU.

The state anticipates the tests will arrive in Montana next week. Once the tests arrive, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and Montana Disaster and Emergency Services will ship allocations to local public health departments for community distribution. Once the tests have been distributed to public health departments, additional information on how and where tests can be obtained will be announced.

The CareStart tests are self-administered, and results are available in 10 minutes.

In the meantime, CSKT Tribal Health has limited quantities of home tests that are being designated to patients who are identified as close contacts, or are symptomatic and not able to get into a testing clinic.

Tribal Health’s testing clinic is at the SKC Health Center in Pablo (in classroom off the main entrance). Patients need to call the Tribal Health COVID Hotline at 406-849-5798 to schedule an appointment for testing.

Patients are asked to self report a positive test to the COVID hotline at 406-849-5798 and a nurse will follow up with each patient.

Testing is recommended 5 days after last exposure or if symptoms develop for close contacts.

For those times when the Tribal Health testing clinic is not available and/or after hours, Tribal Health patients will be able to utilize testing with outside partners.

Tribal Health will pay for testing services for those who are direct care eligible. Tribal Health will not pay for travel-related COVID testing.

Other testing options include:

• Walgreens in Polson (406-300-6042), the nearest travel-testing approved facility.
• St. Luke Community Healthcare (406-676-3600) in Ronan will test patients with symptoms through Convenient Care from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays from or 10 a.m. to 2 p.m on weekends.
• Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson (406-883-5680) will test through their walk-in clinic by appointment only. Their hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.

Vaccinations are available to anyone age 5 or older. Booster shots are also available to anyone age 12 or older. Five months must have passed since the second dose for Pfizer or Moderna boosters, but just two months since the first dose of Johnson & Johnson is required.

The easiest way to get a COVID vaccine is to walk in to either the Polson or St. Ignatius Pharmacy and ask for the shot.

COVID vaccination appointments for youth ages 5-11 can also be made online at www.mtreadyclinic.org. Search for appointments using key words Tribal Health.

Call Tribal Health at 406-745-3525 for more information.