Missoula County

About two-thirds of Montana counties are seeing medium to high impacts on healthcare facilities as a result of rising COVID-19 cases.

Missoula County’s new protocol, put in place in mid April, changes the way first responders and law enforcement respond to strangulation and prioritize the cases for prosecution.

Earlier this month Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte announced the state had ordered 650,000 rapid COVID-19 tests. Those test kits are now rolling in, and counties like Missoula are starting to announce distribution locations and times.

Missoula, Park and Yellowstone counties each approved a 3% local tax on recreational marijuana, according to the unofficial results.

Voters in three counties this week have one more chance to weigh-in on local cannabis taxation policy before sales begin in January.

“We're just hoping that making some of these changes will help speed up our ability to get through the large number of new cases and close contacts that are coming in every day," Missoula COVID-19 Incident Commander Cindy Farr says.

Gov. Greg Gianforte is sending 70 National Guard troops to hospitals around the state to help health care workers overloaded by COVID patients.

Last month’s rainfall brought a welcome reprieve to Montana’s active fire season. Experts at the time, however, cautioned it was not a so-called “season-ending” event.

County health officials across Montana are grappling with a new state law that says they can’t treat vaccinated and unvaccinated people differently. Health officials and school districts working to keep students in the classroom could face a difficult choice: Follow Montana law, or follow recommendations from federal health agencies.

The Montana Hospital Association this week formally requested that Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration use federal COVID relief money to acquire more medical staff. Some County health departments in Montana are struggling to keep up with contact tracing as new cases of coronavirus are on the rise.