For the time being most businesses in Yellowstone County can breath a sigh of relief – at least until November 9. In a press conference on Monday, County Health Officer John Felton did not shut down business activity as he said he would, if the number of COVID-19 cases in the county hit 565 or 50 cases per 100,000.
When the number of COVID -19 cases reached 598 on Friday, the business community worried that Felton would put the brakes on all business, reducing capacities to a point that many would have to close and maybe end business permanently. During a press conference on Monday, however, Felton focused primarily on reducing the size of gatherings that will be allowed and called for a renewed emphasis on wearing face masks, physical distancing and hand washing, with the goal of “slowing the spread of the virus by the end of October.”
He said that in four weeks he would re-evaluate the situation.
Only a week before Felton threatened to reduce capacity limits and re- impose other restrictions that would essentially put businesses back into the closure mode they endured at the beginning of the COVID crisis – a disruption that some did not survive and that many are still trying to overcome.
Felton explained that county health officials wanted to give time for the public to respond to the earlier plea to heighten safety compliance, and for the effort to take effect, so they set “what seemed a very high bar of 565 cases.”
“It seemed very high, yet we eclipsed it the very week we set it,” said Felton.
As of Friday, the number of new positive cases of COVID not only reached 50 of 100,000 but exceeded it by 20 percent.
“It tells the story of how dramatically our situation has worsened,” said Felton. In fact, Yellowstone County ranks second highest in the nation in the rate of infection. “It is growing at an alarming rate.”
The greatest concern is that hospitals may not have the capacity to treat all the patients that need hospitalization. “The impact on hospitals is tremendous,” said Felton, adding that the number of hospitalizations has hovered between 81 and 96 for several weeks. Over half of the patients are from outside Yellowstone County, reflecting the fact that Billings is a regional health care center. It was stated during the press conference that
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