Governor closes dine-in service, bars statewide

BILLINGS (AP) — Montana’s governor ordered bars, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and other gathering places statewide to close Friday and braced the state for an extended shutdown of many public functions in the rush to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The directive from Gov. Steve Bullock came after the first case of illness was reported from a rural area. The closure order was to go into effect at 8 p.m. Friday and expire in a week. But Bullock’s office said the date was likely to be extended, as would a shutdown of schools that’s also set to expire next week.

Some communities already had shut down bars, restaurants and other venues in recent days as officials stepped up efforts to limit people from interacting, particularly in population centers. Many rural areas were not included in those closures.

No one is hospitalized with the virus in Montana, Bullock said in a press conference, but consultations with health officials convinced him more needed to be done.

“It really is up to all of us to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said. “Both young and older Montanans, in urban and rural communities, have tested positive for coronavirus, making it even more clear that this virus impacts us all.”

Under Bullock’s directive, the following places are closed to ingress, egress, use, and occupancy by members of the public:

• Restaurants, food courts, cafes, coffee houses, and other similar establishments offering food or beverage for on-premises consumption.

• Alcoholic beverage service businesses, including bars, taverns, brew pubs, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, tasting rooms, special licensees, clubs, and other establishments offering alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption.

• Cigar bars.

• Health clubs, health spas, gyms, aquatic centers, pools and hot springs, indoor facilities at ski areas, climbing gyms, fitness studios, and indoor recreational facilities.

• Movie and performance theaters, nightclubs, concert halls, bowling alleys, bingo halls, and music halls.

• Casinos.

The places subject to this directive are permitted and encouraged to offer food and beverage using delivery service, window service, walk-up service, drive-thru service, or drive-up service, and to use precautions in doing so to mitigate the potential transmission of COVID-19, including social distancing.

The state directive follows on the heels of a similar directive issued by Flathead County on Thursday.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. But for the elderly and people with existing conditions, it can cause more severe illness. The vast majority of those who are infected recover.

The rural area case involves a female patient in her 70s from Roosevelt County who acquired the virus during a recent international trip, officials said.

Most major population centers now have cases, including Flathead, Yellowstone, Gallatin, Missoula, Silver Bow and Lewis and Clark counties.

Among those who have tested positive is an officer from the Yellowstone County Detention Center, Sheriff Mike Linder announced Friday. Linder said the officer last worked at the facility on Sunday and called in sick on Thursday.

The jail has about 450 inmates and Linder said staff was following health agency recommendations for protecting against the virus. As with other jurisdictions, authorities in Yellowstone County are giving citations instead of taking people to jail for many non-violent crimes to keep inmate numbers lower during the pandemic.

“We were preparing for this. We knew it was a good possibility,” he said.

Officials in states with higher numbers of cases have gone further in restricting public movements. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said residents should stay at home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs, errands and exercise.

There have been reports from other areas of the country of tests for the virus being in short supply. Bullock said Montana was “not running out of tests by any means.”

Representatives of St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, site of what state officials said was the only drive-thru testing center in Montana, said they’ve had no testing supply shortages to date.

Montana Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, who is running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in hopes of succeeding Bullock, is due to come out of a precautionary self-quarantine for the virus on Saturday, said Marissa Perry, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office.

Cooney attended a Board of Regents meeting on March 5 in Dillon with an individual who later tested positive for the virus. Cooney tested negative and has been working at home since he found out about the potential exposure on March 14, Perry said.