Montana passes Alberta for total COVID cases despite being four times smaller
By Medicine Hat News on October 21, 2020.
Montana’s total number of COVID-19 cases has shot past Alberta’s, despite the state having less than one quarter the population. State health officials announced that a steep rise in new cases over the last month, including a near-record 706 on Tuesday, has brought the total number of infections to just under 24,100. That is about three times the figure the state had in early September, and more than Alberta’s total number of cases, stated as about 22,700 on Tuesday. The Montana population of about 1 million residents currently has 9,611 active cases, compared to 3,168 in Alberta, which has 4.4 million residents. The international border has been closed to all non-essential travel since April on a month-by-month basis. On Monday, federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced the measure would be extended until at least Nov. 21. Both sides of the Alberta-Montana border are recording new highs related to the respiratory illness. Alberta’s active cases are the highest since April, but Montana is in the top three of the 50 states in terms of infection rates. Since Oct. 10 the daily average number of new cases announced by Montana health officials has been 608. The seven-day rolling average in Alberta as of Monday sat at 258. Alberta has recorded 292 deaths related to COVID, while the figure in Montana is 252. Specific to Hill County, surrounding the town of Havre, active cases rose to 313 on Tuesday with 40 more new positive test results. The death toll in the county of 16,000 people stands at 12. 14-13
