The week in coronavirus news: More than 11,000 tested

It was an up and down week on the coronavirus front, as Gov. Steve Bullock is expected to announce in the next few days a way to ease some of the restrictions in the state.

The current stay-at-home order expires Friday.

On Monday, state health officials announced for the first time since they started testing no new coronavirus cases were detected in the state — a strong indication that the stay-at-home order and social distancing measures are working. On Tuesday, four more cases were announced, though Flathead County hasn’t had a positive case in several days.

State data also shows Montana has experienced 11 COVID-related fatalities to date. Unfortunately, about half of these deaths have been recorded in rural Toole County on Montana’s Hi-Line, where the virus has primarily infected residents and health-care workers at an assisted living facility in Shelby. The Toole County Health Department released a press release Monday morning announcing the fifth death, that of a woman aged 80 to 89.

To date, there have been 11,051 people in Montana tested for the disease, 437 confirmed cases and 243 had recovered. Fifty seven have been hospitalized since March and 19 are still in the hospital.

Globally, however, there have been 171,652 recorded deaths. The U.S. leads all countries, with an estimated 42,732 deaths.

Politics have also entered the pandemic, with protests calling for non-essential businesses to reopen. But even the protestors, according to media reports, practiced social distancing and more than a few wore masks during a rally in Helena Sunday.

State Sen. Dee Brown (R-Hungry Horse) complained on a Facebook page created by state Republicans called START Montana that big box stores like Costco are open with “hundreds of people milling around,” but small businesses remained closed.

“This is just wrong,” she said.

She said those small businesses are vital to the state’s recovery.

Small businesses are the “best front line for this virus ... small business is really smart, they’ll figure it out and do the right things.”

“Let’s start Montana,” she added. She also urged folks who might have health risks to stay at home.

State Republicans leaders also sent a letter critical of Bullock’s virus response.

Buoyed by $1.25 billion in federal funding, Bullock has assembled a task force to examine the best way to open the state.

“After April 24, we’ll move forward with a phased reopening,” he said last week.

But he said it would be a gradual process.

“This virus isn’t going away,” he said.

One aspect of a reopening includes broad testing, so health officials can identify who does and who doesn’t carry the disease. If a person has the illness, they can then be quarantined from the general population.

The problem is the state doesn’t have the capacity right now to do the broad sort of testing that would be required. It doesn’t have the supplies needed.

For example, the state recently asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 30,000 swabs to do tests. The state received 4,000, Bullock noted.

The bottleneck is that the federal government has no nationwide testing plan. States are often on their own, competing with each other and the feds.

Maryland, for example, bought 500,000 testing kits from South Korea on its own.

More testing kits have come Montana’s way in recent days. Both Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester announced that 5,000 nasal swabs were en route to the state for testing.

But no word on the tests themselves.

This story contains additional reporting from Kianna Gardner.