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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 04 2022

Contact: Jon Ebelt, Public Information Officer, DPHHS, (406) 444-0936, (406) 461-3757, jebelt@mt.gov
Chuck Council, Communications Specialist, DPHHS, (406) 444-4391, (406) 461-8367, hcouncil@mt.gov

DPHHS to Scale Back COVID-19 Data Reporting

Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) officials announced today that due to the low level of COVID-19 transmission in Montana at this time, updates to the COVID-19 cases and vaccine dashboards will move to a weekly reporting cadence effective Friday, May 6.

Updates to both dashboards will now be posted every Friday beginning May 13 to include updated data of cumulative cases, new cases, hospitalizations, total deaths, vaccine doses administered, etc. from the previous week. After the Friday, May 6 update, the next update will be on May 13.

The COVID-19 weekday emails will also conclude this week, with the last one to be sent on Friday, May 6.

Additionally, the CDC COVID-19 community levels will be displayed on the COVID-19 dashboard. The COVID-19 community levels are a tool to help communities decide what prevention and mitigation steps to take based on the latest data.

DPHHS also recently scaled back or discontinued various data reports that have been posted on the COVID-19 webpage regularly over the past two years.

Changes to the following reports include:

The weekly surveillance report will continue. The report provides a weekly snapshot of COVID-19 activity in Montana. However, the report now include long-term care (LTC) and assisted living facilities (ALF) data.
DPHHS will pause on publishing updated separate weekly reports of COVID-19 cases in schools, LTC and ALF, and the hospital occupancy report. However, as mentioned above, information related to LTC and ALF will be included in the weekly report. Archives of all previous reports can be found here.

The vaccination report by county will now be updated every other week.

These changes do not mean that public health officials have scaled back COVID-19 surveillance efforts. DPHHS will continue to closely monitor COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in Montana. Local public health officials will continue to investigate COVID-19 outbreaks and cases in settings which may expose individuals at high risk for severe outcomes. Health officials request that the public follow COVID-19 precautions recommended by the CDC given their community’s COVID-19 transmission and hospitalization levels, including being current on COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters.