As of Saturday, October 17, 2020, Montana reports 22,233 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 641 new cases reported in the last day: 110 in Yellowstone County, 63 in Cascade County, 62 in Gallatin County, 56 in Flathead County, 37 in both Missoula and Roosevelt Counties, 35 in Hill County, 25 in both Deer Lodge and Lake Counties, 20 in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 35 more Montana counties. Statewide, 1,0001 people have been hospitalized, and 324 people currently are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. There are 8,598 active coronavirus cases in Montana. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead, Glacier, Missoula, Cascade, Roosevelt and Gallatin Counties. 240 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 219,000 Americans have died. There have been 8,120,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

New restrictions are in effect in several European nations in an effort to staunch the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic. In Paris and eight other French cities, restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other establishments close no later than 9 p.m. to try to reduce contact among people. The country was deploying 12,000 extra police officers to enforce the new rules. In Britain, restrictions in cities like London and York include a ban on socializing with people from other households indoors; even tighter restrictions in the UK have forced pubs to close and prohibited people from socializing with others. Northern Ireland instituted a lockdown lasting four weeks starting on Friday.

The CDC school metrics put Gallatin County in the highest risk of transmission in schools for two out of the three metrics. The county is in the second highest risk category for the other metric. Gallatin City-County Health Officer Matt Kelley said, “We’re seeing for the last 14 days, 549 new cases per 100,000 residents. It puts us way past the point of highest risk of transmission in schools.” The number of schools in the county with active cases increased from eight schools to 12 this week. Bozeman High School and Belgrade Middle School have the highest number of active cases [with four and three cases, respectively]. Lone Peak High School and Whittier School [have two active cases], Chief Joseph Middle School, Gallatin High School, Gallatin Gateway School, Heck Quaw Elementary, Irving School, Manhattan High School, Morning Star School and Ridge View Elementary School all have active coronavirus cases.

There were 65 new cases connected to Montana State University reported this week for a total of 282 associated cases since Aug. 1

For months, the jail in central Montana’s Cascade County was free of the coronavirus. Then a few people who had the virus were arrested. By the time Paul Krogue, the jail’s medical director, realized there was a problem, nearly 50 inmates were infected in the jail, where some had been sleeping on mats on an overcrowded floor.

The Mountain West, which for months avoided the worst of the pandemic, has rapidly devolved into one of the most alarming hot spots in a country. Seventeen states, including Montana and many in the Mountain West, have added more cases in the past week than any other week of the pandemic. And the spread through sparsely populated areas of rural America has created problems in small towns that lack critical resources — including doctors — even in ordinary times. Wyoming, which did not have 1,000 total cases until June, recently added more than 1,000 in a single week. Reports of new infections have recently reached record levels in Alaska, Colorado and Idaho. And Montana, where more than half of the state’s cases have been announced since August, is averaging more than 500 cases per day.