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Despite Gov. Steve Bullock calling a press conference about how Montana’s health care system is under stress from COVID hospitalizations, MT health officials won't release complete statewide numbers about hospital bed and ICU occupation and capacity. 1/8
Benefis in Great Falls was reported to be at 115% of capacity on Wednesday and Billings Clinic announced on Friday it had run out of room and had to convert a care home for patient overflow. 2/8
But it's difficult to get the complete picture across the state. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has punted its response to a request for the information about how close to capacity all hospitals in Montana are getting. 3/8
"We are working on an effort to share that information in a way that would be meaningful. I should be able to give you an update next week." Jon Ebelt, DPHHS spokesman. 4/8
So they have the information, but are declining to release it because they are deciding how to present it to the public? And they're not promising to release it next week, just to update their progress. 5/8
Meanwhile, Montana is in the top 5 states in the nation in per-capita cases. 6/8
Schools cases are rising. In a week, COVID cases jumped from 278 to 432 in K-12 schools, and from 204 to 345 in MT colleges and universities. 7/8
A month before the election, there is no indication that Montana will add any new restrictions like there were in the spring. 8/8
