GREAT FALLS — Montana officials announced Friday that there is now an online complaint form for people to report violations of COVID-19 health mandates.
Governor Steve Bullock said in a news release that people can now notify health officials of violations of COVID-19 directives by using the Consumer Complaint Form; the form is already used to report food-borne illnesses and other public health and safety issues.
“The Consumer Complaint Form will allow citizens to report their concerns about businesses and events that have not enacted the directives intended to protect everyone,” Bullock said. “All Montanans deserve a safe community and healthy environment, and reporting these concerns means we’re looking out for each other.”
The Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services already uses the Consumer Complaint Form to investigate public health issues such as possible cases of salmonella and other food-borne illnesses.
The form has been updated to include concerns related to COVID-19 public health directives. Concerns submitted through the website will be reviewed by DPHHS and sent to the appropriate agency for review and investigation. The information received will allow the state to track cases with numerous complaints and follow up on the most egregious ones.
There were 863 new cases and 4 new deaths added to the total on the Montana COVID-19 tracking site on Friday morning. The data below is from the official Montana website on October 23:
- TOTAL CASES & RECOVERIES: There have been 26,503 cumulative cases statewide, with 16,611 people recovered.
- HOSPITALIZATIONS: There are 351 current hospitalizations, and a cumulative total of 1,170 hospitalizations.
- DEATHS: The cumulative number of deaths in Montana is at 282.
- ACTIVE CASES: The state reports there are currently 9,610 active COVID-19 cases in Montana.
- TESTING: There were 8,154 completed tests, for a new cumulative state-wide total of 461,000.
Numbers reported by the state each day occasionally differ from those reported by county public health departments due to periodic lag times in reporting data to the state. We encourage people to check the official website and/or Facebook page of their respective county health department for any information that is not yet included in the state's daily updates. Based on additional data from county health departments, MTN News reports the following:
- Deaths: 300 (+18 from state)
- Recoveries: 17,995 (+1384 from state)
- Active: 8,795 (-815 from state)
- Total Cases: 27,090 (+587 from state)
It's important to note that not every person who tests positive actually becomes ill or exhibits symptoms. Many do not; of those who do become sick, some experience mild symptoms and do not require hospitalization. Others, however, do require hospitalization, as noted in the daily update on the number of people hospitalized. However, every person who does test positive for COVID-19 has the potential to spread the virus to other people, including family members and friends, which is why public health officials continue to encourage everyone to wear a mask and maintain at least the recommended six feet of "social distance" when in public.
Great Falls Clinic posted the following message on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon: "Today we are at 100% capacity. Although we do not have an ICU, we have four special care beds, all of which are full with COVID-19 patients. Benefis has reached 113% capacity. Benefis ICU is also full with 21 patients, 19 of those patients have COVID-19." As of Friday morning, there have been 14 deaths due to COVID in Cascade County; there are currently 859 active cases and 823 recovered cases in Cascade County.
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- What constitutes a recovery? Click here for details
- Why are cases increasing? Click here for details