A Ravalli County self-quarantine directive of last week became a State restriction March 31 when Governor Steve Bullock mandated "any person coming into Montana from another state or country for non-work-related purpose must immediately self-quarantine for 14 days."

With Idaho only a couple of hours away, Ravalli County residents could put themselves into self-quarantine. The COVID-19 Incident Management Team Tuesday requested that "if you decide to go to Salmon, Idaho, for an "outing" ... when you get back to Ravalli County, you self-quarantine for 14 days." The Ravalli County Health Department requests that all people that come into Ravalli County from out of state or out of country contact the County's Emergency Operation Center at 406-375-6650, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Incident commander Dr. Carol Calderwood said in a news release, "Non-essential travel and social distancing go hand-in-hand. We realize that people may need to go out of the valley for essential reasons. Plan your trip, get what you need, social distance, wipe surfaces, come home and stay home ... COVID-19 will come to Ravalli County, we just need to keep trying to do everything we can to slow the spread."

Calderwood also noted the first incidence of "community spread" in Missoula County - cases not known to be linked to travel.

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