As of Sunday, January 31, 2021, Montana reports 93,949 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 191 new cases reported in the last day: 41 in Flathead County, 29 in Yellowstone County, 26 in Missoula County, 20 in Gallatin County, 11 in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 22 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 3,643. Statewide, 4,245 people have been hospitalized. Currently, 101 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead, Cascade, and Gallatin Counties. 1,233 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 441,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 26,200,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Vaccine tourism is on the rise as wealthy international tourists eye an opportunity in the U.S. Florida has already taken steps to stop the “abhorrent” flow of scarce coronavirus vaccinations to wealthy line-cutters. The very idea that somebody with money but no immediate access to the scarce Covid-19 vaccine could fly to another country to get a shot is raising both outrage and ethical questions. In Florida, reports of rich Canadians, Brazilians and Venezuelans, as well as people from other states, crashing the Sunshine State to get a shot prompted the state’s surgeon general to sign a public health advisory last week requiring vaccination providers to ensure that every person who gets the shot lives in the state. Wealthy Americans who live outside Florida have also been able to get vaccinated in the state. Richard Parsons, the former chairman and CEO of Time Warner, described on national TV how he flew down from New York to Florida to get a shot. The executive order that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed just before Christmas gave first dibs on vaccinations to people aged 65 and older but did not specify that they had to actually live in the state. That changed Thursday when Dr. Scott Rivkees, Florida’s surgeon general, signed a public health advisory that requires vaccination providers to ensure that every person who gets a shot in the state is a Florida resident.

Moderna is tweaking its coronavirus vaccine to make it more effective against emerging variants of the virus, the company announced Monday. The upgrades will be designed to better protect against the different strains and could be used as a booster shot. The announcement comes as scientists around the world scramble to get ahead of a constantly mutating virus that has already killed more than 2 million people worldwide. Moderna said its existing vaccine is effective against a more contagious variant that is thought to have emerged in the United Kingdom. But the vaccine was less protective against a strain that was first reported in South Africa. An early study found that with the South African variant, the level of antibodies produced from the vaccine diminished sixfold.
Despite the observed drop, Moderna said neutralizing antibodies — which can bind to viruses and block them from getting into cells — remained above protective levels for both.

‘Captain Tom,’ a 100-year-old veteran who raised millions for the U.K. health service, has Covid-19. Moore made international headlines last year when he began a fundraising campaign to support the United Kingdom’s National Health Service in April, thanks to an idea from his daughter to keep him active during the pandemic. He pledged to walk 100 laps around his 50-yard-long garden before his 100th birthday, and initially hoped to raise 1,000 pounds ($1,244 US). His fundraiser ultimately raised 33 million pounds ($41 million US) for the country’s health service.