COVID-19

As college students move in to dorms on Montana university campuses this week, some are already moved into isolation units, sick with COVID-19.

Classes will begin at Montana State University and the University of Montana next week. Officials from both universities say they won’t be publishing how many students are sick with the COVID-19 illness during the semester.

For the first time in months, students will be heading back to class in-person. What schools look like will depend on each school district, their community and what public health officials are comfortable with. Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton joins Corin Cates-Carney to explain.

Gov. Steve Bullock changed his stance on masks in schools Wednesday and is now directing students attending class in counties with four or more COVID-19 cases to wear masks.

Bullock issued a mid-July directive mandating Montanans wear masks inside businesses and other public buildings that reside in counties with four or more COVID-19 cases. The directive did not apply to schools at that time, he said.

A Kalispell assisted-living facility breathed a small sigh of relief Wednesday when its residents’ COVID-19 tests came back negative. Those results took more than a week to return.

Initial tests were given high priority by the state lab, and a state health official says this kind of delay in results is uncommon.

Montana lawmakers are working out plans for what their 2021 session will look like and there’s still plenty up in the air, like whether they’ll be required to wear face masks.

Legislative staff have explored whether local or state health rules, like Gov. Steve Bullock’s statewide mask mandate, apply to legislators in the Capitol building. Staff told lawmakers during an interim planning committee meeting Monday that there’s no clear answer.