As of Sunday, August 9, 2020, Montana reports 4,952 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 64 new cases reported in the last day: 24 in Yellowstone County, 9 in Gallatin County, 7 in Big Horn County, 4 in Fergus County, 3 in Glacier and in Silver Bow Counties, 2 in each of Beaverhead, Cascade, and Lewis & Clark Counties, and 1 in each of Beaverhead, Carbon, Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Ravalli, Rosebud and Valley Counties. Statewide, 272 people have been hospitalized, and 83 people are currently being treated in the hospital for COVID-19. Yellowstone County has had 1,285 cases so far, and Gallatin County has had 939. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 1,602. The most active cases are in Yellowstone County, with 559 active cases, while Gallatin County has 66 active cases. 75 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 162,000 Americans have died.

Five more deaths were announced early Saturday in Montana. One was another death related to the coronavirus outbreak at Canyon Creek Memory Care in Billings, a woman in her 80s. That makes sixteen of the 55 residents at Canyon Creek Memory Care who have died of COVID-19. A man in his 90s, who had lived in another Yellowstone County senior living facility, died at that facility. A Cascade County man over 65 with underlying health conditions died. Officials said his death was not related to the outbreak of coronavirus cases in an assisted living facility in Cascade County. And two men from the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana died, one a man in his fifties, and the other in his sixties.

A stay-at-home mandate remains in effect on the Rocky Boy Reservation as ordered by the Chippewa Cree Tribe, as well as a curfew, to try to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In southeast Montana, the Crow Tribe in Big Horn County ordered its members to lock down for two weeks beginning Friday in an effort to slow a sharp spike in coronavirus cases and deaths on the reservation. Crow Tribe Chairman Alvin Not Afraid said the lockdown is necessary because a stay-at-home order in effect since mid-March has been ineffective.

In the U.S., 97,000 children tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks of July. The testing was done as school districts around the country plan a return to fall classes.

Bozeman School Board trustees are leaning toward having students return to school five days a week this fall, rather than learning in school two days and at home three days a week, as the superintendent recommended in the face of high coronavirus cases. At the end of a Zoom meeting Thursday that stretched more than eight hours, a clear majority of the eight School Board trustees said they’ll likely vote Monday night to reopen schools five days a week.

Nearly 600 children were admitted to U.S. hospitals with a rare inflammatory syndrome associated with the novel coronavirus over the past four months. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) is a severe condition that shares symptoms with toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, including fever, rashes, swollen glands and heart inflammation. It has been reported in children and adolescent patients about two to four weeks after the onset of COVID-19

Thousands of motorcyclists poured into the small city of Sturgis, South Dakota, on Friday for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, despite concerns among residents that the 10-day gathering could spread the coronavirus. The rally expects to draw a quarter million people from around the country in what could be one of the largest public gatherings in the U.S. since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Those attending the rally are encouraged, but not required, to wear face masks. The governor of South Dakota has never issued a stay-at-home order or mask mandate for the state. The prospect of coronavirus infections rising from the rally has worried some residents of Sturgis, a city of 7,000 in the western part of South Dakota. One week after the rally, residents of Sturgis will be able to take the coronavirus test free of charge.