As of Saturday, June 13, 2020, Montana reports 588 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with fifteen new cases reported in the last day: five in Gallatin County, three in Lake County, two each in Custer County and Yellowstone County, and one each in Big Horn County, Missoula County, and Ravalli County. Statewide, 77 people have been hospitalized, and seven people are being currently treated in the hospital for COVID-19. There have been 187 cases so far in Gallatin County. 18 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 116,000 Americans have died. 510 Montanans have recovered from the disease.

Drive up COVID-19 testing is being done at Price Rite Pharmacy in Bozeman! You can go to the website DOINeedACovid19test.com for information and to sign up. Testing is drive-up, minimal contact, and by appointment only.

In the fourth-largest U.S. city, Houston, Texas, officials are “getting close” to re-imposing stay-at-home orders and may reopen a Covid-19 hospital at a football stadium as virus cases expand.  The announcement on Thursday came a day after Texas recorded its highest one-day tally of new cases since the pandemic emerged.

In Gallatin County, in the small community of West Yellowstone, the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park, the town’s water source is damaged and the town’s water is contaminated. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has issued a Do Not Use Order for the town’s water effective immediately.  This means that the water in the town’s water system can not be consumed.  The situation was not created by COVID-19. The Town has arranged for the delivery of more than 1000 cases of bottled water from Bozeman, which will be distributed from the south parking lot of the Town Hall between 10 AM and 6 PM. Families will be distributed one case per day, hotels and nightly rental establishments will be permitted to take 2 bottles per room, per day. Officials are testing the water and there will be repairs made to the town’s water system.

Sunday, June 14, marks a moment in history. On June 14, 1988, the most intense summer of wild fires in Yellowstone National Park began. Within one week in July, fire acreage doubled to 17,000 acres, and fire experts in the area agreed that the fires could only be stopped by rain or snow. The firefighting efforts aimed to control the fires at the flanks and protect lives and property in the paths of the fires. By the first week of September 1988, more than 40 lightning-caused fires had started in the park. Eventually, a quarter inch of snow stopped the fires on September 11, 1988. More than $120 million was spent to control the fires and more than 25,000 people were involved. The fires in 1988 in Yellowstone National Park turned out to be instrumental in understanding the role of fires in ecosystems.