There are zero cases of COVID-19 in Carter County. However, last Friday Fallon County saw its first case and Tuesday, Wibaux County its. As of Tuesday, there were 1,952 cases of COVID-19 in Montana with 1,034 active cases.

Some Carter County residents were close contacts of the Fallon County case. A close contact is defined as a person who has been less than six feet away from a person with COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes. A close contact is notified of this by their local public health department. According to current CDC recommendations, all close contacts are tested and asked to quarantine for 14 days. Quarantine and isolation are often used interchangeably, but they have entirely different meanings.

A person in quarantine has been exposed to someone who has a contagious disease but is not sick. Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to an infectious disease to see if they become sick. During the COVID-19 pandemic, close contacts are asked to quarantine for fourteen days because the incubation period of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is up to 2 weeks. These people monitor themselves for fever and symptoms of COVID-19 daily, and the public health nurse checks in with them routinely throughout the quarantine.

The term isolation is used when a sick person with a contagious disease is physically separated from people who are sick. Depending on how sick a person is, they could be in isolation at home or in a hospital. How long a person with COVID-19 is in isolation depends on many factors, and the individual's primary healthcare provider will determine the length of isolation in conjunction with public health.

To learn more, please go to http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus. If you are concerned, have been exposed and have symptoms, and live in Carter County, please call Dahl Memorial Healthcare Association at 406-775-8730 to discuss your symptoms and situation.