As of Thursday, December 10, 2020, Montana reports 70,133 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 779 new cases reported in the last day: 147 in Yellowstone County, 109 in Gallatin County, 77 in Flathead County, 56 in Cascade County, 48 in Missoula County, 39 in Silver Bow County, 31 in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 35 more Montana counties. Statewide, 3,003 people have been hospitalized, and 490 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 17,117. The most active cases are in Yellowstone and Cascade Counties and in Flathead and Lewis & Clark Counties. 781 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Thirty-nine more deaths have been logged in the past three days. Nationwide, more than 290,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 15,500,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

More than 30 staffers and members of Michigan’s House of Representatives have contracted the coronavirus— a week after Rudy Giuliani testified maskless in the chamber and three days after it was announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19. Eight representatives and 21 staffers have reported testing positive so far.

Pregnant women were believed to be no more susceptible to coronavirus than the general population, but cases show a a 70 percent increased risk of death. One expectant mother, Erika Becerra gave birth, then for 18 days she fought for her life, hooked up to a ventilator in a Detroit hospital. Diagnosed with Covid-19 on Nov. 7 at just shy of nine months pregnant, Becerra, 33, was otherwise healthy and excited to welcome her second child. Initially, her coronavirus symptoms were manageable at home: body aches and some tightness in her chest. But then, Becerra started having problems breathing, and her husband rushed her to the hospital by ambulance. With her condition worsening by the day, doctors opted to induce Becerra on Nov. 15, a couple weeks before her due date. Becerra’s son, Diego, was born healthy. But chaos followed his birth: Becerra’s oxygen level plummeted. Instead of getting to cradle her baby boy, Becerra had to be intubated. She never got the chance to hold her newborn. her condition deteriorated. On Dec. 3, she died. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added pregnancy to a list of conditions that carry a higher chance of severe or fatal complications from Covid-19, based on a large study of pregnant women that found a 70 percent increased risk of death compared to symptomatic women who were not pregnant.

An Idaho official left a meeting in tears as anti-maskers swarmed her home. Minutes into an Idaho public health district’s virtual meeting to vote on a local mask mandate on Tuesday evening, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo tearfully excused herself after getting a phone call that anti-mask protesters had surrounded her home. “My 12-year-old son is home by himself right now, and there are protesters banging outside the door,” she told the Central District Health’s Board of Health, which serves four counties in the state’s most populous region. “I’m going to go home and make sure he’s okay.” A visibly upset Lachiondo then disconnected from the video call, leaving her colleagues at the meeting stunned. They soon learned that protesters had gathered outside the Central District Health office and one other board member’s residence as well, targeting the public officials who were meeting virtually from their homes and private offices as a precaution amid the worsening pandemic.

In addition to swarming Lachiondo’s home, protesters also showed up at board member Ted Epperly’s house. Epperly, a physician in Ada County, said about 15 people were still outside his home as other members moved to adjourn the meeting early. He told the Statesman the small crowd banged garbage cans, flashed strobe lights through his windows and knocked on his door as the virtual meeting unfolded. “Sadly,” he told his fellow board members during the last minutes of the video call, “It is not under control at my house and it’s not under control at Diana’s house.” Just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, Lachiondo tweeted she and her son were safe.

The protests on Friday and Tuesday were organized by a multistate network of right-wing activists called People’s Rights. The group was founded by Ammon Bundy, a vocal anti-masker and anti-government activist who gained national attention as part of the 2016 standoff between Patriot movement extremists and federal police at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Bundy was arrested in August at the Idaho Capitol after tying himself to a chair.