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Another KRH employee tests positive for coronavirus

CHRIS PETERSON | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 9 months AGO
by CHRIS PETERSON
Chris Peterson is the editor of the Hungry Horse News. He covers Columbia Falls, the Canyon, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. All told, about 4 million acres of the best parts of the planet. He can be reached at [email protected] or 406-892-2151. | March 24, 2020 6:45 AM

The total number of cases of coronavirus in the Flathead Valley is now at four as of Monday evening.

The Flathead County Health Department on said that two more cases have been confirmed.

The first individual is a female in her 30s and the second individual is a male in his 50s.

The woman is an employee of Kalispell Regional Healthcare, the hospital said in a release Monday.

She had traveled out of Montana from March 12 to March 16 and began showing minor symptoms on her return March 18. She worked March 19. The friend she stayed with during her out-of-state travel contacted her and told her she had been in contact with a positive coronavirus case and the friend she stayed with was having symptoms. She suggested the employee may need to be tested for coronavirus and she was tested while at work. The test came back positive on Monday.

The employee is now at home recovering on a 14-day isolation. The hospital didn’t say how many people the employee may have come in contact with.

“The appropriate detailed surveillance, interventions, and containment strategies are under way and as before all the appropriate steps will be taken. As a reminder and as a part of our investigation, anyone who meets the surveillance criteria for contact with this employee will be notified, sent home for quarantine and tested should symptoms arise,” said hospital spokeswoman Mellody Sharpton.

No information was released on the 50-year-old man.

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Oh, Christmas tree!

I usually talk to my mother on the phone once a week or so. She lives alone in Florida and works for a church doing funerals part-time.