As of Sunday, February 7, 2021, Montana reports 95,790 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 91 new cases reported in the last day: 17 in Flathead County, 17 in Gallatin County, 11 in Cascade County, 11 in Missoula County, 11 in Yellowstone County, and more new cases in 7 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 3,314. Statewide, 4,353 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. 1,314 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Seven more deaths have been reported since yesterday. Nationwide, more than 462,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 27,000,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

COVID reinfections may be more common than realized. As millions of Americans struggle to recover from COVID-19 and millions more scramble for the protection offered by vaccines, U.S. health officials may be overlooking an unsettling subgroup of survivors: those who get infected more than once. Identifying how common reinfection is among people who contracted COVID-19 — as well as how quickly they become vulnerable and why — carries important implications for our understanding of immunity and the nation’s efforts to devise an effective vaccination program. Scientists’ understanding of reinfection has been constrained by the limited number of U.S. labs that retain Covid-19 testing samples or perform genetic sequencing. Many U.S. states are not rigorously tracking or investigating suspected cases of reinfection. In Washington state, for instance, health officials are investigating nearly 700 cases that meet the criteria for possible reinfection, with three dozen awaiting genetic sequencing and just one case confirmed. In Colorado, officials estimate that reinfections make up a low percentage of positive coronavirus cases, but that people are infected more than once. In Minnesota, officials have investigated more than 150 cases of suspected reinfection, but they lack the genetic material to confirm a diagnosis. In Nevada, where the first U.S. case of Covid-19 reinfection was identified last summer, the director of the state public health lab said there’s no doubt cases are going undetected.

Workers in Montana’s state lab are no longer receiving a temporary increase in pay that was instituted last year as the state ramped up its testing program for COVID-19. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services notified 29 lab workers last week that an increase in hourly pay they were receiving would end on Jan. 29. In an email to workers, the agency said, “This past year you received a temporary pay adjustment to your hourly base rate of pay due to increased responsibilities with COVID-19 testing. With efforts in Montana focusing on vaccinations and the use of third parties now processing tests, the department will be ending the temporary increases you have been receiving.” The state lab processed the vast majority of tests starting in March and continued to process about half of the tests in the state as late as June, while total tests remained less than 15,000 per week. As the numbers of tests grew, private labs made up for the bulk of the tens of thousands more processed each week. The state lab is currently performing fewer than 5,000 tests per week