COVID-19

The Yellowstone County health department is on-boarding school staff to track down the close contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19.

RiverStone Health says this week it trained roughly 100 staff members at several schools to assist with contact tracing efforts.

Positive cases of COVID-19 statewide have spiked since schools reopened in August, and RiverStone Health currently rates its case investigation capacity as red on a stoplight scale.

Laura Stutzman had no doubts that this year’s Twin Falls County Fair should go on despite the pandemic still raging across the U.S. — and several outbreaks tied to such community fairs.

Twice as many schools in Montana are reporting more than twice as many cases of the novel coronavirus among students and stuff over the week prior.

In a weekly report released Wednesday, the state health department announced 62 more schools reported coronavirus cases than the previous week, for a total of 121 schools kindergarten through university statewide.

Jewish people in Montana and around the world will be celebrating Yom Kippur this Sept. 27 and 28. Two Montanans shared what it means to celebrate one of the most sacred days of the year in Judaism, virtually.

Randi Levin lives near Helena but has been a member of Congregation Beth Shalom in Bozeman for the last decade. Normally, Levin makes the 100 mile drive south for the High Holy Days.

Community leaders reviewed COVID-19’s disproportionate impact to Indigenous people across Montana during a virtual roundtable on Sept. 23. They also considered ways to improve health outcomes among tribal members.

Democratic state Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy of Crow Agency lamented the rise of COVID-19 cases in tribal communities after Montana began reopening in June, during the panel discussion hosted by Protect our Care Montana

“It’s a tsunami impact upon our people across the nation,” Peregoy said.