Lake County sees increase in active COVID-19 cases
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Lake County has seven active cases of COVID-19 with the most recent case reported on June 22. The state of Montana has counted 12 cases total in the county since March 26 when the first case was reported.
Two children in the age range of zero to 9 have been reported to have the virus, and another child was between the ages of 10 to 19. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council noticed that children and teenagers haven’t been wearing masks to help prevent infection. They created the CSKT COVID Youth Community Care Awareness Campaign to take action.
The council asked Artie Mendoza to create a music video asking young people to wear a mask. Mendoza incorporated protective guidelines in the video: “Wash your hands, wash your dirty hands,” he said. “Six feet or I’m busting out the Lysol.” The video can be seen on YouTube by Kiid Truth. The tribe is also sponsoring a TikTok video contest with $100 prizes. Young people can create their own video and post it on TikTok.
In additional age ranges, one person aged 30 to 39 was reported, and one person 50 to 59. There are four people reported in the 60 to 69 age group. In the 70 to 79 age group, there is one person, and one person in the 80 to 89 age group.
Lake County-CSKT Unified Command Center is comprised of both the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal government and Lake County government working together to respond to local issues pertaining to the virus. The UCC stated that the most recent case was related to a cluster infection.
“The infected person shared a home with another positive case and had been in quarantine,” the UCC said. “Public health officials have conducted the case investigation to identify any additional contacts. All close contacts have been notified, tested and remain in quarantine.”
On June 17, it was reported that the Lake County Health Department was following up on a presumptive case that turned out to be negative. The case was reported early before results were confirmed because the client had reported frequenting the KwaTaqNuk Casino prior to becoming sick. The UCC wanted to keep the public informed of possible exposure, but as it turned out, the invidividual did not have the virus.
