For now, Gallatin County is still the COVID-19 hotspot of Montana. (Folks really need to be staying home more.) But Terry Cunningham finds a few bright spots in our current situation.

Bozeman City Commissioner, Terry Cunningham, has put together another fantastic list of resources and food for thought:

Daily Update / Tip: An increase in the number of confirmed cases in Gallatin County can actually be an indication that the system is working. Health professionals at Gallatin City-County Health Department interview those who test positive and do “contact tracing” to see who they’ve come into contact with. They are then able to see who else should be contacted to alert them to take precautionary measures such as quarantining themselves (“quarantine” means separating and restricting the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick) and monitoring themselves for symptoms. Contact tracing allows for the identification of “clusters” of possible Covid-19 infection and helps slow the spread to the rest of the community.

FAQ: Q: Can you identify the four “local luminaries” (3 male, one female) whose voices are among the narrators of the public service announcement “Do Your Part” that’s currently featured on healthygallatin.org and social media channels?

A: Hints .You’ll find one on television news, one at 11th and Grant, one at Barley & Vine and one deep in the back country.

Pulling Together: One local church – Bozeman United Methodist Church (BUMC) on Olive St. has created a new program called Church Dash to provide meals, prescription drop-off, snow shoveling, etc. for seniors and those church members with compromised immune systems. Church volunteers chef up meals and deliver them to the doorstep in a sanitary manner – to ensure social distancing. If you have questions about how BUMC set up or administers their program, give Pastor Amy Strader a call at 586-5413.

What Can I Do? Be slightly less “extreme.” The Covid-19 outbreak places a tremendous strain on our community’s healthcare system, emergency department and first responders.

Making smart decisions about your outdoor adventures means you’re preserving search-and-rescue personnel, medical transport and healthcare resources for your neighbors in need.

The Yale School of Medicine advises, “As always, we want people to avoid injury and getting hurt, but especially in this time of crisis we ask everyone to be even more careful.

Now is not the time to end up in the emergency room with a broken bone or worse if it can be avoided. We want to lessen the load on our emergency room doctors as well as keep you safe from exposure.”

Gallatin County Search and Rescue - winter
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