10 August 2020 — 1758 mdt
A “major correction” drops Flathead County’s
active Covid-19 case count from 177 to 60
Yesterday, Montana reported that Flathead County had 177 active Covid-19 cases. Today, just 60 active cases were reported. Flathead County’s active cases per 1,000 now is 0.6, well below the 1.4/k for Montana. Big Horn County leads Montana with 21.4/k.
What accounted for the Flathead’s massive drop in active cases? Here’s the Flathead County’s department of health’s explanation, published in red bold letters on the county’s webpage:
Please note that the Case Counts for Flathead County recently underwent a major correction as the Montana Department of Health and Human Services reconciled their case numbers with the Flathead City-County Health Department to correct a backlog of unreported recoveries. This correction accounts for the large drop in Active Case Numbers seen in Flathead County on August 10th.
[The 60 active cases number was published today, but applies to yesterday. JRC]
Just below that paragraph, also in bold red letters, the county begged for understanding:
Due to community spread of COVID-19 in Flathead County, in addition to the influx of cases being reported every day, it is currently difficult for the Flathead City-County Health Department to determine and report the source of new cases. Thank you for your understanding.
The embedded table below is the HTML version of my Excel spreadsheet for the numbers published today. A note on the data follows the table.
Montana Covid-19 cases by county
Notes on the data. The 2020 population estimate for Montana’s counties is an extrapolation of the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate for 1 July 2019. I assumed that the growth rate for 2019–2020 was identical to the growth rate for 2018–2019, then rounded the result to the nearest hundred. The case data were scraped from Montana’s master Covid map page, and through a largely automated process, converted to an Excel spreadsheet.
Montana’s DPHHS should publish a similar spreadsheet on a daily basis, and should make the entire set of daily numbers available for download.
Publish the names the business that employed Covid-19 positive people
Furthermore, Montana should publish the town as well as the county of the positives, and the age of the positives instead of an age range. The public needs to know this information, and in my judgement, has a right to it. Montana’s public health authorities, still partly in pre-pandemic mode, are trying to conceal the identify of the unfortunates who have tested positive. But in subordinating the public’s need to know to individual privacy, these public health officials are aiding and abetting the coronavirus.
Flathead County also does not release to the public the names of the restaurants and businesses whose employees have tested positive. The results of health inspections of these places is a matter of public record. So too should be the names of restaurants and businesses who employed Covid-19 positive people, and the dates of the tests (both when the specimen was obtained and when the results of the test were received).