Will COVID-19 Cases Spike After Labor Day Weekend?

When it comes to rating the weeks of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Montana, this wasn't our best one. We had two days this week with over 180 new cases per day. If you take the five days that have seen the most cases in a single day - those two days are both in the top five. If you include last week we have three out of the top five. According to officials, the numbers may increase on the other side of this holiday weekend.

COVID-19 numbers have seen spikes after holidays this year, in Montana and the rest of the country. Numbers from a KECI story show that Montana had 74 new cases in the two weeks that followed Memorial day. That number is actually pretty small when you see more than 1,300 positive tests were reported in Montana in the same time period after the 4th of July. (I know there's the argument to be made about the number of tests increasing but we're just going off of the number of confirmed cases.) Montana's highest daily number of confirmed cases is 208 - registered 20 days after the July holiday.

It will be interesting to see how the numbers trend in the weeks that follow Labor Day. With more people travelling and larger gatherings of people, the expectation is that we'll see another spike. As we head into the weekend, health officials suggest you practice the following to help prevent the spread of COVID-19: continued social distancing, wearing a mask when within 6 feet of others, keeping holiday weekend gatherings at a minimum.

I know we're still dealing with the daily issues of the pandemic, but hopefully we can all enjoy this long weekend. We'll see what the numbers have to say in a couple of weeks. What do you think? How will the numbers compare to the 4th of July? Lower......same.......higher?