Despite the lack of press conferences announcing as much, the number of positive COVID cases has been declining in Montana since early November. The number of cases daily is back down to the level at which they hovered at the end of summer.
Montana was ranked 40th by USA Today in terms of its rate of COVID infection. An article posted on Dec. 28 stated, “Montana reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Saturday, adding 2,814 new cases. That’s down 29.2% from the previous week’s toll of 3,975 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.”
Across Montana, cases fell in 40 counties, with the best declines in Yellowstone, Flathead and Cascade counties.
Across the country, six states had more cases during Christmas week than they did in the week before, according to USA Today.
The declines might have to do with less testing around the holiday season, which might help explain the lack of news regarding the turnabout and dramatic decline, but in surfing the web, it is obvious that the increases in cases had far more media attention than has the decline.
But even the percent of tests that came back positive in Montana has declined, which is a more accurate reflection of what is actually happening. Montana test results in the latest weeks that came back positive was 10.7 percent, compared with 11.8 percent in the week before.
November 13 had the highest number of confirmed cases at 1,642. Then the daily number began to precipitously drop. Over the next ten days the numbers dropped to 701 cases on Nov. 22. On Nov. 29 the number hit 39.
Five days before Christmas the number of cases dropped to 154. On Sunday, December 27 the number of confirmed COVID cases was 224.
From Dec. 17 thru 27, the average daily number of cases in Montana has been 453.
Montana’s trend is actually not that unique. Nationally, the number of confirmed cases has also been declining – as it has worldwide. In the US the numbers have dropped from Dec. 18, with 226,197 cases, through Dec. 27 when the number of confirmed cases was 143,519.
Worldwide the data shows an even more dramatic decline – dropping from a peak of 1,771,180 on Dec. 16, to 465,352 on Dec. 27. Some websites display graphs of reported cases for a number of countries, almost all of which show declines over the recent past, with the UK being a lone exception.
Yellowstone County remains at the top among the counties for the highest number of cases cumulatively at 13,629. The county has reported 159 deaths, with about half that number coming from communities beyond Yellowstone County, since Billings serves as a regional medical center.
Statewide there has been a total of 79,999 confirmed cases of COVID with 73,481 having recovered. Statewide there are 213 people hospitalized on Dec. 27, with a total of 3,464 hospitalizations throughout the duration of the crisis. 927 people in the state have been credited as having died as a consequence of the disease.
