Hi my name is Cindy Farr and I am the
incident commander for the Missoula City
County Health Department's COVID 19
response. Today is Thursday, June
18th and this is my daily briefing.
Today I'm going to talk about current
case numbers in our county and state as
well as describe some safe environments
and safe behaviors that we're seeing in
our community as we're in phase 2
reopening and we'll also discuss when it's
appropriate to wear a cloth based
covering and how or a mask and when it's
not when it's okay not to. So as of this
morning, we've identified 2 new
positive COVID 19 cases in Missoula
County. These new cases are under
investigation. So far the new cases this
week were related to travel, were
contacts to confirm cases as well as
we've seen some community spread. The
cases and their known contacts are in
quarantine and isolation and they will
continue to be monitored and supported
by medical staff as needed. I also just
want to remind everyone that if you are
identified as a close contact to a
positive case, one of our public health
nurses will reach out and contact you. So
today we've had 48 cumulative positive
cases in Missoula County. 46 of those
were identified by testing and 2 were
epi linked. We've had 40 recoveries and
one death and we have seven active cases
currently. The state is reporting a total
of 655 cases including 25 new cases
confirmed this morning. In addition to
the new cases in Missoula County, the new
cases today are reported in Bighorn,
Flathead, Gallatin, Yellowstone, Carbon,
Fergus, Richland, Lake and Valley counties.
Some of these counties have been
experiencing clusters of cases as well
as travel related and community spread
cases and some of these counties are
starting to experience their first cases
of COVID 19. The state is reporting 90
active cases across Montana and we've
had 20 deaths statewide. So first I
just want to let you all know that I
will not be doing a daily briefing
tomorrow as we have a press conference
in the morning. So our numbers will be
updated on our website as well as on the
DPHHS website and you'll hear from me
again on Monday. So despite the recent
rain, we know that we're about to heat up
really quickly as we shift from spring
to summer and we know that summer
means that we get to do things like get
outside more often and eat ice cream in
the sun instead of under those cold grey
skies, leisurely window shop downtown, sit
by the river and watch stand-up
paddleboards and boats go by and
generally just really enjoy a different
pace to life for a couple of months.
Well while these are all really exciting
prospects, especially getting to enjoy
summertime under the Big Sky, we can't
forget that the novel coronavirus has
been with us and will continue to be
with us for some time to come.
Now that we're a few months into our
response efforts, our communities are
much more familiar with practicing safe
behaviors to reduce the risk of exposure
and transmission of COVID 19. We're
seeing so much good work around safety
while reopening. In retail businesses,
we've seen owners limit the number of
people in small shopping spaces in order
to ensure safety in that environment.
We've seen hand sanitizers at entrances,
floor markings indicating where six feet
is from the cash register. We've seen
salon owners asking the clients wait
outside before being met by staff member,
escorted inside and seated with their
stylists. We've seen clients and staff
wearing cloth face coverings. We've seen
really creative workarounds with that -
you bet it's weird to get your hair cut
with a face mask on but it can be done
and it can be done really well. For
instance a co-worker shared that when
they got their hair cut their stylist
momentarily used cloth tape to safely
keep secure their cloth covering to
their face while the stylist trimmed
around their ears. That's a really clever
and painless workaround. We've seen
grocery stores take a variety of
approaches to safety including requiring
and recommending cloth face coverings
while shopping, posting large prominent
signs indicating one-way aisles, floor
markings asking shoppers to give each
other a little bit more room at the
checkout and plexiglass windows to
provide that extra layer of safety
between cashiers baggers and the public.
We know that going to the doctor for a
routine checkup also feels different
than it used to. Face coverings are often
required and patients wait outside
instead of congregating in waiting rooms.
Places of worship and assembly also feel
different. People are encouraged to
remain with their families or household
members and keep physical space between
different groups of people. Instead of a
handshake we see people saying hi or
waving hello. These are just a few
examples of the really safe
practices that we've seen that we
appreciate and we applaud. Creating safer
environments helps all of us and
respecting the asks when we're in those
environments is really of utmost importance.
If we're already expressing our opinions
through our spending, which is what we're
doing when we choose where we shop, we
can surely express gratitude back to
those businesses and organizations by
respecting the owners, staff and the
community members in those same spaces.
One sure way that we can practice
respect and gratitude is wearing the
cloth face covering. Now bear with me. If
we respect the places that we choose to
spend money, we can also express
gratitude for the opportunity to be able
to support those businesses and
organizations again more fully. Wearing
a mask shows that you respect the people
around you and that you care about
public health. Businesses and
organizations are creating safer spaces
by modifying the physical environment
like signs and Plexiglas but we as
individuals need to follow those cues
and shore up safety more fully within
that space while we go about our daily
lives working, shopping, running errands,
recreation and so on. We are tasked with
thinking about and implementing safer
behaviors in old familiar environments.
Back in April, our Board of Health and
Health Officer had incredible foresight
about COVID 19 and how we might help
best keep it at bay in our in our county.
This is why they strongly publicly
recommended that all community members
wear cloth face coverings to increase
safety and reduce risk. Remember that the
cloth base covering, while it's on your
face, is actually for everyone else
around you. It's for local small business
owners. It's for the vendors at the
farmers market. It's for the clinicians
safety, the safety of everyone else in
the restaurant, the store the office the
movie theater and so on.
One small mask can go very long way
towards creating a safer environment for
everyone. We're moving into warmer months
and this means that those cloth face
coverings are definitely weird to get
used to. They might start feeling really
uncomfortable again. I have a few tips
for how to continue safely wearing those
face coverings. You want a breathable
fabric like cotton especially during the
warmer months. This fabric choice could
increase comfort and reduce the
likelihood of wanting to touch and
adjust the  mask throughout the day.
You want to check the fit. It should be
snug but
not so tight that it hurts or affects
your ability to breathe in any way. Ties
are often better for creating the best
fit for your face shape. Unlike elastic
that might hurt your ears after a while,
ties can be better adjusted to fit your
face. You don't want to wear a mask if
it's damp or wet. We're having some
really humid days with the rain, sun, rain
mix. If there's more moisture in there
then there's a chance that you'll feel
more moisture around your face covering.
So remind yourself to check in with
yourself. Does this really feel
comfortable? Can I adjust it to make it
more comfortable while also covering my
mouth and nose? Do I need to bring an
extra cloth face covering with me so
that I can swap them out if I need to?
You just want to continually evaluate. If
you're heading out of the house think
through where you're gonna be and what
will be expected of you at the places
that you visit. Also consider giving
giving yourself a break from the cloth
face covering or mask. Not every
situation merits a cloth face covering.
For instance, there's a difference
between walking through a narrow office
hallway, where you would probably want a
mask and meeting one-on-one with a peer
or co-worker in a large space with
plenty of room to sit safely apart from
each other while still working together.
Even health care workers are encouraged
to take breaks from face masks when it's
safe to do so. For every two hours on
they try to take 15 minutes off to let
their skin breathe a little bit better.
So keep those things in mind that you
know anytime that you're going to be in
really close proximity with other people
it's really important to wear those
cloth face coverings but give yourself a
little bit of a break if you're in a
very large room and you can stay far far
away from people then it's okay to
remove those masks then. Always just be
respectful if for the rules that other
organizations are putting into place for
you. So thank you for continuing to play
your part in creating the safe
environments across our County. Again
if we want to go far, we need to go
together. The more of us that are
practicing the safer behaviors, the more
protected we will all be. So that's it
for my daily briefing for today. As
always you can subscribe to me on
YouTube under my name Cindy Farr. That's
CINDY FARR. Click that little
notification bell so that you get
notified when additional videos are
uploaded. You can follow us on Facebook
at the Missoula City County Health
Department's Facebook page. We
our posting for lots of jobs on the
Facebook page. A note will direct you to
where you can go to apply for those jobs.
You can call 258-INFO for more
information about COVID 19 or if you
would like to schedule a test through
our drive through testing facility and
you can check out our website at
missoula.co/cvirus. So until Monday everybody stay healthy
