Yellowstone Times

Butte’s Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher has requested the Board of Health to review the county’s COVID-19 infection rate as he is looking at the possibility of relaxing the restrictions on businesses. 

The board will continue restricting the businesses to 50 percent capacity, and impose the closures of bars and casinos at 10:30 p.m. until the county’s positivity rate remains below 10 percent for two weeks and cases per 100,000 people below 25 for two weeks.

The current positivity rate is at 8 percent and 30 cases per 100,000.

Gallagher is hopeful that the county will soon have fewer cases and reduced positivity rates.

“By accounts of where we’re going, we’re moving in the right direction to be able to open up to less restrictions,” Gallagher said.

He clarified that his decision to press the board of health had nothing to do with pressure from some small businesses that are opposing the existing COVID-19 restrictions, KXLF reported.

“There’s pressure on both sides, you know, truthfully, there’s people that would like us to really ramp up the restrictions and of course a lot of the businesses would like to open up more, so there’s a balance of it all. But I’m not going to give in to the pressure of one side or the other. We’re going to make decisions that we think are best for the community,” Gallagher added.