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HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Governor Steve Bullock and Montana Medical Association (MMA) President Dr. Marc Mentel held a press call Friday, April 24 to update and discuss Montana’s COVID-19 response.
During the call, Mentel used a fire analogy to explain the three options for handling COVID-19.
Option one being to stay open and let the fire burn itself out, option two being to stay closed and wait for a substance to cure the fire and option three being to slowly reopen.
Mentel said Montana has chosen option three which is the only option that MMA condones.
Mentel said, “we need to reopen the state but we need to ask ourselves how do we go on living not just surviving.”
Mentel concluded that constant surveillance will be required to fight the virus and every Montanan will need to pitch in and work together.
Bullock was then asked what steps need to be taken to get to phase two.
Bullock said, “it’s impossible to put a time constraint on when phase two might occur…it depends upon how we as a community act and how the virus acts.”
Bullock said they will continue to monitor and analyze COVID-19 data but urges all vulnerable Montanans to treat phase one just like the stay at home order.
The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) also released an update that Montana now has a case rate of 39.5 per 100,000 people which is significantly less than Montana’s surrounding states.
DPHHS stated that not only is the growth rate still slowing but transmission in communities is staying steady as well.
For more information visit covid19.mt.gov.
