A 23rd Jefferson County resident has died from COVID, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The death was the second COVID death announced in the county in 2022, following a rash of deaths in the county that began in late summer 2021 and continued through the fall and early winter.
On Monday, the Jefferson County Health Department released an updated tally of cases and deaths in the county that reflected the 23rd death. The department previously announced the 22nd COVID death in the county in a Facebook post on Jan. 7.
Fifteen county residents have died from COVID since late August. The time from late August through the holidays and new year—a span of little more than four months—was the deadliest timeframe for the virus in the county so far.
The department did not release any further information about the death, such as the age, gender or vaccination status of the person who died, but the department stated in a Dec. 8 announcement of other COVID deaths that “the majority of individuals who are most seriously ill and hospitalized are unvaccinated.”
Molly Carey, the department’s clinic coordinator, told The Monitor after the county’s ninth COVID death that “we don’t release any information other than Jefferson County had a COVID-19 related death. This is out of respect to the individual’s loved ones.”
The department announced the county’s ninth COVID death on Aug. 27. At that time, the county reported 17 active cases and one hospitalization, and an increase of 11 new cases in the preceding three days. The department announced the county’s 10th death on Oct. 8, at which time the county reported 76 active cases, four hospitalizations and 51 new cases since three days prior.
The department announced five more deaths during the first nine days of November, and it announced five more in early December. It announced another death on Dec. 21, before announcing the 22nd death on Jan. 7.
On Monday, Feb. 7, the department reported 84 active cases and 88 new recorded cases since Jan. 31. Monday’s report did not list the number of residents hospitalized with COVID, but it did state that eight residential facilities in the county had active cases.
The county saw its first COVID death on Nov. 30, 2020.
Jefferson County, Montana and the United States experienced a surge in coronavirus infections and COVID deaths beginning mid-summer and continuing through the early fall, driven primarily by infections and deaths among the unvaccinated, though case numbers in Jefferson County and Montana receded into early winter. Trends in COVID deaths generally lag behind trends in the number of new infections. The surge in cases and deaths has lopsidedly affected areas with lower vaccination rates, including many rural areas of the nation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases have again spiked this winter, exceeding last winter’s peak and far exceeding the fall, because of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
