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As Gov. Steve Bullock moves to roll back emergency measures enacted to slow the COVID-19 pandemic, he has said he’ll take a data-driven approach to reopening Montana’s economy while minimizing the risk of a second-surge outbreak.

State officials are keeping a close eye on the number of laboratory-confirmed cases. However, they aren’t tracking the number of Montanans who’ve been tested in each county, a metric national experts say is important to fully understand how the outbreak is playing out in different parts of the state.

Testing has been in short supply across the country. Counting methods vary, but the U.S. has tested 4.6 million people, or roughly 1.4 percent of the population, according to data from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine's Coronavirus Research Center. Montana has tested 11,875, or 1.1 percent of its population.


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Katheryn Houghton can be reached at khoughton@dailychronicle.com or at 582-2628.

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