As of Saturday, September 12, 2020, Montana reports 8,925 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 140 new cases reported in the last day: 32 in Rosebud County, 30 in Yellowstone County, 17 in Cascade County, 8 in Roosevelt County, 7 in Big Horn County, 6 in Gallatin County, 5 new cases in Liberty County and in Missoula County, 4 in Glacier and in Toole County, 3 in Hill and in Silver Bow County, 2 in each of Beaverhead, Carbon, Custer, and Fergus Counties, and 1 in each of eight more Montana counties: Chouteau, Dawson, Garfield, Granite, Lewis & Clark, McCone, Park, and Sheridan County. Statewide, 521 people have been hospitalized, and 144 people currently are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. Yellowstone County has had 2,457 cases so far. Gallatin County has had 1,148. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 1, 968. The most active cases are in Yellowstone County, with 759 active cases. Gallatin County has 62 active cases. 133 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 193,000 Americans have died. There have been 6,470,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor Josh Green — who has helped to lead the state’s fight against COVID-19 — has tested positive for coronavirus. A deputy sheriff assigned to Green’s protective unit also tested positive for COVID-19. After receiving the positive results, Green said he would quarantine separate from his family. Green’s 14 other staffers are also self-isolating and seeking testing. Green’s “best guess” is that he caught coronavirus from the member of his security detail, whose wife also tested positive. He said he “might not have been tested had [he] not found out they tested positive.” Hawaii’s lieutenant governor is an emergency room doctor and was working at Kohala Hospital last weekend.

Canada reported no COVID-19 deaths in the past day for the first time since March 15, according to public health agency data released Friday. Canada’s death toll from the pandemic is 9,163. The number of positive cases increased by 702 on Sept. 11. With most provinces easing lockdown restrictions and as schools reopen for in-person classes, Canada’s coronavirus infections have seen a mild pick-up in recent days. Authorities have been on high alert to avoid fresh outbreaks, and provinces including British Columbia have imposed new curbs to tackle the spread of the virus. As COVID-19 cases began to spike in mid-March, Canada shut its international borders to all foreign nationals and ramped up tests in an effort to isolate infected patients. Ontario and Alberta faced outbreaks among temporary foreign workers on farms and meat-processing plants, which slowed reopening in certain regions.

In the United States, influenza (or the flu) season typically starts in September or October and peaks between December and February, although viral activity can begin as early as September and go as late as May. And flu season is on a collision course with the worst infectious disease outbreak we’ve experienced since the 1918 pandemic. The flu comes every year, but that doesn’t make it any less deadly. 81 percent of deaths from flu were among people ages 65 and older. Like COVID-19, influenza can also cause a whole host of nasty complications. While most people who get influenza will recover in less than two weeks, others can experience life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, myocarditis, encephalitis and multi-organ failure. But unlike COVID-19, which seems to have mostly milder effects on children, healthy kids are at higher risk of complications for influenza. The fall and winter of 2020 will bring us another complicated seasonal respiratory infection: enterovirus D68. The US has been seeing this infection circulate over the past several years. Enterovirus D68 is usually a mild to moderate respiratory infection in children, although it can lead to acute flaccid myelitis, a rare but serious neurologic condition. In what could be a bad winter with coronavirus, influenza, and enterovirus D68, health officials are concerned that people may not seek medical care out of concern for COVID-19 infection risk.