As of Wednesday, December 30, 2020, Montana reports 81,300 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 629 new cases reported in the last day: 144 in Gallatin County, 76 in Yellowstone County, 74 in Flathead County, 53 in Missoula County, 52 in Lewis & Clark County, 39 in Silver Bow County, 36 in Cascade County, 23 in Ravalli County, and more new cases in 29 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 5,380. Statewide, 3,553 people have been hospitalized, and 223 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Cascade, and Lewis & Clark County. 950 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Eleven more deaths have been reported in the last day. Nationwide, more than 341,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 19,700,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow has died of COVID-19. He was 41 years old. Letlow was elected as U.S. representative for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District in a December runoff election. Letlow announced on Dec. 18 (just a week and a half ago) that he tested positive for COVID-19, days later tweeted that he was being treated at a hospital, and on Wednesday his representative said he’d been transferred to another hospital where he was stable in the intensive care unit. His death occurred less than a week before he was to be sworn in to the new Congress on Jan. 3.

More people are getting COVID-19 twice, suggesting that immunity to the virus wanes quickly in some people. Reinfections hint that immunity against COVID-19 may be fragile and end relatively quickly, with implications not just for the risks facing recovered patients, but also for how long future vaccines might protect people. South Korean scientists reported the first suspected reinfections in April, but it took until August 24 before a case was officially confirmed: a 33-year-old man who was treated at a Hong Kong hospital for a mild case in March tested positive again at the Hong Kong airport on August 15 (just five months later) after returning from a trip to Spain. Since then, at least 24 other reinfections have been officially confirmed—but scientists say that is definitely an underestimate. To count as a case of reinfection, a patient must have had a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test twice with at least one symptom-free month in between. Reinfections could become more common over the next couple of months if early cases begin to lose their immunity, and especially as the virus mutates. Already, a variant of the coronavirus first detected in the UK and which is much more contagious is affecting people in the US, in the UK, and in Europe.

Dawn Wells, who played the wholesome Mary Ann among a misfit band of shipwrecked castaways on the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” died Wednesday of causes related to COVID-19, her publicist said. She was 82.

Colorado and California reported cases of the more contagious variant of the coronavirus first seen in Britain. California’s case is in San Diego County, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who did not provide additional details. Colorado’s two cases both involve members of the Colorado National Guard who were sent to the small town of Simla, about 80 miles southeast of Denver, to help staff the Good Samaritan nursing home, above, which recently had a severe coronavirus outbreak. Hospitalizations nationally have hit a pandemic peak of 124,686. a significant subset of patients have to return to hospitals, sometimes repeatedly, with complications triggered by the disease or by the body’s efforts to defeat the virus.