The Montana Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) have confirmed that there is no coronavirus in Gallatin County.

Communicable Disease Epidemiologist with Montana DPHHS provided details on Friday afternoon.

“Today in Bozeman we got the news that our testing for the patient under investigation for novel coronavirus that the testing from CDC came back negative,” said Anderson. “We’re relieved that we still do not have a case in Montana. We’re up to 15 cases total in the United States and all but two of those cases are associated with direct travel to the Wuhan area of mainland China. The remaining two are individuals who are considered in close personal contact to a case. It’s really not unexpected because of the close contact that they had, so at this date we have 15 cases in the U.S.”

Anderson said the virus has a new name Cov 19.

“We’re keeping track of the situation globally and what we’re seeing is that the majority of the cases and the sustained transmission of the novel coronavirus, now called Cov 19 is still concentrated in China,” she said. “While they have a lot of cases there and there is some concern about China that so far the measures we’ve put in place for public health in the United States has prevented that same transition from happening here at this time.”

Anderson also emphasized the importance of getting the most accurate information out to the public in a time of crisis.

“It’s important that you have the most accurate, up-to-date information possible, so we have created our own website at the Montana DPHHS that is specific to this novel coronavirus Cov 19, and we encourage people to visit because that’s where we will have the most up-to-date information for Montana,” she said. “We also encourage people to visit the CDC website for novel coronavirus because they are updating that website constantly. There are a lot of frequently asked questions that can be answered at the CDC website about various things they have heard and whether or not they are true.”

Anderson stressed the fact that the only way to become infected with the novel coronavirus is through personal contact with someone with the disease.

“The virus is spread through close personal contact and it is respiratory spread,” she said. “We compare it sometimes to influenza or pertussis in terms of how it’s spread through those respiratory droplets when someone is coughing,” she said. “You have to be physically close enough to become infected. Right now what we’re looking at for someone who is at a higher risk is someone who has traveled from mainland China, or is a contact to a confirmed known case of novel corona virus, and right now there are only 15 in the United States.”

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