Cascade County has reported the first flu death of the season, and after nearly three weeks of no COVID-19 deaths, two have been confirmed in the county.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Cascade County has reported the first flu death of the season, and after nearly three weeks of no COVID-19 deaths, two have been confirmed in the county.
The Cascade City-County Health Department (CCHD) says one of the two COVID-19 deaths actually happened in September.
"We get occasional requests from the State to review medical records and confirm that COVID appears to be the primary cause as identified on a death certificate," said Ben Spencer, communication and privacy officer for CCHD in an email statement.
Despite the multiple death confirmations within a short time, CCHD says they remain optimistic about both the county's low case numbers and the long period without any deaths.
"There have been periods of time when we consistently had several deaths every week, and 323 of our community members have passed from COVID in total. It can be easy to slip into thinking of deaths merely as statistics—but each of those people left loved ones and had profound impacts on the people in their lives," said Spencer in an email statement.
CCHD says they do not know what the COVID-19 landscape will look like in the future, as it could become seasonal or endemic or swing unpredictably due to future new variants.
"We hope that people can remain adaptable as the circumstances change down the road," said Spencer in an email statement.
