GREAT FALLS — The Cascade City-County Board of Health met on Wednesday to discuss Covid and vaccination rates.
Cascade County has been pretty constant with its vaccine rate of 46%, remaining a bit under the state average of 50%.
What has changed in the past few weeks is the demographics. In the past week people ages 12-17 have surpassed the 18-34 category by 1%.
City-County Health Department Health Officer Trisha Gardner said it's difficult to pinpoint, but there may be a few reasons why these ages are so hesitant to get the vaccine.
She noted, “Lots of speculation of what the different reasons may be. One of the thoughts is that just part of the population feels like that this particular virus may not affect them.“
Gardner also said they had anticipated an uptick in vaccinations after the FDA granted approval for the Pfizer vaccine, but that uptick has not happened at this point.
“I know a reason that was given by a lot of people was they were uncomfortable with the emergency use authorization that it was operating under. Now they have full FDA approval, so I really hope that word gets out to those people that were very, you know, on the fence about it because of that emergency use. Pfizer is now fully approved and is not working under that emergency use authorization”
Gardner also said that nearly 90% of new cases within the county are a result of the Delta variant.
Data for Cascade County from the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services as of September 1, 2021:
Vaccination data
- Population Eligible for Vaccination: 68,949
- Number Fully Immunized: 31,649
- Percentage of Eligible Fully Vaccinated: 46%
Covid data
- Current Active Covid Cases: 927
- Total Recovered: 10,001
- Total Deaths: 197
- Cumulative Covid Cases: 11,125
Benefis Health System in Great Falls on Monday said it had 28 inpatients with COVID; four of those patients had been vaccinated, and 24 had not.
There were 895 new COVID-19 cases reported within the last 24 hours in Montana, with 5,494 total active cases as of Wednesday, September 1. The last time the state had more than 5,400 active cases was December 31, 2020, according to MTN data.
Montana averaged 2,227 active cases a day in August, which is more than five times the July average of 384 active cases a day.
There were three new deaths reported on Tuesday; the total number of Montanans who have died due to COVID is now 1,803, according to DPHHS. Since August 2, 2021, 95 people have died due to COVID in the state, compared to 38 in July.
The number of people currently hospitalized in Montana due to COVID is 249. The cumulative number of hospitalizations due to the virus is 6,404, which is an increase of 46 since Tuesday. To date, roughly 1 in 20 (5.0%) reported COVID cases in the state have resulted in a hospitalization.
COUNTIES WITH THE MOST ACTIVE CASES
- Yellowstone County: 201 new; 1,014 active
- Flathead County: 125 new; 957 active
- Cascade County: 141 new; 927 active
- Missoula County: 85 new; 682 active
- Gallatin County: 63 new; 266 active
- Lewis & Clark County: 27 new; 256 active
- Silver Bow County: 16 new; 136 active
- Lincoln County: 22 new; 126 active
- Lake County: 17 new; 124 active
- Hill County: 20 new; 114 active
- Ravalli County: 19 new; 108 active
About 50% of eligible residents are now vaccinated, with 464,191 Montanans now considered fully vaccinated. If you want to get vaccinated, contact your county health department, or click here.
There have been 128,098 cumulative cases of COVID in Montana. The cumulative number of recoveries is now 120,801. There were 7,233 new COVID tests administered since the last DPHHS report.
The information above is from the DPHHS website and is current as of Wednesday, September 1, 2021. The site also has county-specific data on the number of new cases, cumulative cases, vaccination rates, and more.
