Cascade County City-County Health Department said June 22 that there are three more confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county, bringing the total to 25.

The new cases are a female in her 30s and two females in their teens, according to CCHD.

These cases were found through contact tracing of previously confirmed patients.

CCHD confirms 22nd COVID-19 case

That makes eight new confirmed cases since June 13, before that the county didn’t have any confirmed cases for a month. All seven new cases are active. Two of the new cases have been specified by CCHD as “community acquired.”

Before that, the county had 17 and of those, two died and 15 recovered.

According to CCHD, the agency has three public health nurses actively conducting contact tracing and has other full-time staff that can aide in contact tracing if needed. CCHD told The Electric that it also has several on call nurses if the need arises. CCHD has not requested any assistance to date for contact tracing, according to Katie Brewer, CCHD’s prevention services division manager.

As of last week, none of the confirmed cases were identified through surveillance testing, according to Trisha Gardner, county health officer.

The increase in cases could be community spread by asymptomatic people or “that they came into contact with someone with very mild symptoms. We also have people now traveling into our county more freely and they could be asymptomatic and/or have very mild symptoms,” Gardner told The Electric last week.

Gardner said they don’t have an exact number of tests performed in Cascade County since there are providers who are not providing CCHD with their testing numbers. Gardner said CCHD gets numbers from the largest three testing sites in Great Falls and as of June 17, more than 6,000 people had been testing in Cascade County.

The 22nd case was confirmed June 20, but CCHD didn’t specify how the male in his 30s contracted the virus.

Cascade County notified of 21st COVID-19 case

The 21st case is a woman in her 50s and associated with out-of-state travel.

CCHD confirms 20th COVID-19 case in Cascade County

CCHD was notified June 16 of the 20th case, which was a male in his 60s. That case was a contact to a known positive test, according to CCHD.

New positive COVID case confirmed in Cascade County, total now 19 cases

The 19th case was confirmed June 14 and was a male in his 60s with “community acquired infection.”

18th COVID-19 case identified in Cascade County

“Please be mindful of all the measures you can take to protect yourself from this disease, and watch out for those around you—particularly those who are at high risk of serious illness,” CCHD said in a June 14 post.

CCHD has not released any additional information regarding the case and in the past has said it will not release further information about patients who test positive for COVID to respect their individual privacy.

CCHD announced the 18th confirmed case on June 13. That case is a woman in her 50s with no history of travel or contact with a known case.

“The origin of this patient’s infection cannot be determined, suggesting this infection was community-acquired,” CCHD said Saturday.

CCHD nurses conduct contact tracing investigations and individually contact all known contacts of a confirmed positive case so that they can self quarantine for 14 days and monitor their health for any COVID symptoms.

No new COVID cases in Cascade County for third week

CCHD said on June 4 that a COVID-19 case was identified in Cascade County but it wasn’t assigned to the county or the state.

That case was a female in her 20s who’s a visitor to Cascade County with a recent out of state travel is a confirmed case in the county, according to CCHD.

“Although the individual will not be considered a Montana case, contacts have been identified in Cascade County. Both this woman and all identified contacts have been isolated and quarantined, and are actively being monitored by CCHD,” according to CCHD.

17th case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in Cascade County

The last confirmed case in Cascade County was May 11.