GREAT FALLS — Conrad Public Schools will transition to a two-week remote learning period after the Pondera County Health Department confirmed several coronavirus cases among students and staff in the district.
A news release posted on Sunday by the school district says the individuals who tested positive had been in contact with many other students and staff. The exact number of individuals who tested positive was not immediately available, but the release says the Pondera County Health Department is working to confirm positive cases at the state level.
To prepare for the remote learning transition, school buildings will be closed on Monday, September 28, and Tuesday, September 29. The district will tentatively schedule times for students to pick up materials on Tuesday. Remote instruction will start Wednesday.
All activities and athletic event are indefinitely suspended, and school buildings will be deep-cleaned and sanitized during the closure. The district's tentative plan is to return to in-person learning on October 12.
The release says there's still considerable work left for the district and health department to do so they can understand the extent of the outbreak. If your child is determined to have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus, the Pondera County Health Department will contact you about next steps.
Superintendent Sean Beddow stressed the importance of hygiene, social distancing, and wearing facial coverings. You can read the full statement from Conrad Public Schools below:
As of Sunday afternoon, the Pondera County Health Department confirmed 16 active cases in Pondera County and several pending tests.
We've reached out to Conrad Public Schools and will update you when we learn more.
There were 200 new cases and two new deaths added to the total on the Montana Response COVID-19 tracking site on Sunday morning. The data below is from the official Montana website on September 27:
- TOTAL CASES & RECOVERIES: Montana now reports 12,107 cumulative cases statewide, with 8,779 people recovered.
- HOSPITALIZATIONS: The state reports 148 active hospitalizations, and a cumulative total of 687 hospitalizations.
- ACTIVE CASES: The state reports there are currently 3,155 active COVID-19 cases in Montana.
- TESTING: The number of tests increased by 1,022 over the previous 24-hour reporting period, for a new cumulative state-wide total of 330,307.
- DEATHS: The cumulative number of deaths in Montana is at 171, an increase of one since Friday.
Numbers reported by the state each day occasionally differ from those reported by county public health departments due to periodic lag times in reporting data to the state. We encourage people to check the official website and/or Facebook page of their respective county health department for any updates that are not yet included in the state's daily updates.
