HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Montana officials announced 10 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, said two Montana Women’s Prison inmates with presumptive positive tests were negative for the respiratory virus in followup testing and Gov. Steve Bullock announced $8.7 million in federal funding for education interests.
Gallatin County has six new cases and there are one new case each in Big Horn, Custer, Lake and Lewis and Clark counties from more than 1,200 tests run on Thursday. The state had 46 new COVID-19 cases over the past seven days, compared to 48 the prior week. The total known cases since mid-March is 573. Eighteen people have died and seven people remain hospitalized.
Case numbers have been rising in Gallatin, Big Horn and Yellowstone counties, increases Bullock attributed to increased testing of asymptomatic people. The Gallatin County cases are largely isolated clusters within large families and small social groups, he said Thursday
A day after the Department of Corrections announced two presumptive positive tests among inmates at the Montana Women’s Prison, the agency said Friday followup tests were negative. The department is conducting further investigation. Another 260 inmates and staff were tested for the disease caused by the coronavirus and those results were being delivered Friday, the agency said.
On Friday, Bullock announced $8.7 million in federal grants for education entities to offset the impacts of the coronavirus.
“Emergency grants will immediately address needs for students who may have fallen behind, upgrade critical technology infrastructure, and ensure students have access to remote learning opportunities,” Bullock said in a statement.
The funding comes from a U.S. Department of Education fund that gives governors the authority to distribute money to local education entities. This funding is separate from the state’s $1.25 billion coronavirus relief fund.
The Montana University System received $6.5 million that will be used for the One-Two-Free program to offer free dual enrollment courses to high school students, fund technology upgrades, and offer workforce training, according to the governor’s office.
The Montana Digital Academy received $230,000 to expand enrollment, extend remote proctoring services for credit recovery students, identify and address mathematics gains and barriers to prepare students for the fall, and provide EdReady Montana support for the ACT test.
Some private colleges received funding for remote learning and technology upgrades. Carroll College received $500,000, Rocky Mountain College received $60,000, and the University of Providence received $30,000.
The Montana State Library received $500,000 to expand its mobile hotspot and mobile device lending programs.
Bullock on Thursday urged residents to continue following public health guidelines to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. He said he doesn’t expect the state will meet the guidelines to fully reopen any time soon, especially because other states are seeing rising case numbers and hospitalizations.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
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This version has been corrected to show that two Montana Women’s Prison inmates tested negative for the COVID-19 virus.
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