News

To varying degrees, Sanders County residents have followed CDC recommendations and Governor Bullock’s directives during this pandemic. Those efforts, and the blessing of low population density, resulted in us being one of the last Montana counties to have Covid-19 present. This all started to change this week. We have seen a rapid increase in identified cases, and to date we cannot connect them all. That means we have so called “community spread”. From a practical standpoint, it means more likely than not we will continue to see increased numbers, though we cannot predict by how much.

Our Sanders County Public Health department is working to conduct contact tracing in an effort to limit further spread. The department’s work will make a difference, but our resident’s willingness to cooperate with staff is very important for success. Please respond timely to inquiries from the public health department if it reaches out to you.

What else can we all do? We need to recommit to the initiatives that have been the foundation of our efforts from the start, including; social distancing, mask use, washing hands, coughs into elbows as opposed to hands, sanitizer use, avoidance of gatherings that don’t allow for these things, and staying home if we are sick. These measures, when practiced faithfully, have repeatedly resulted in diminishing the Covid caseload in any area (as well as other respiratory illnesses).

I believe we all want to see our businesses remain open and our children able to obtain an education. We want things to be “normal” again. We have our best chance of succeeding if we each take responsibility for what we can do, so let us commit to doing what is needed.

Gregory S. Hanson, MD
President/CEO
Clark Fork Valley Hospital