As of Wednesday, April 7, 2021, Montana reports 105,526 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 180 new cases reported in the last day: 72 in Gallatin County, 22 in Missoula County, 15 in Yellowstone County, 9 in Flathead County, 8 in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 21 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 946. Currently, 34 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Gallatin County and Yellowstone County. 1,489 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Twelve more deaths have been reported since Sunday. Nationwide, more than 556,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 30,900,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Young people are driving the latest Covid-19 surge as coronavirus wards at hospitals across the nation are increasingly being populated by younger, still-unvaccinated adults who’ve let their guard down, the nation’s top public health experts are warning. Fed up with pandemic restrictions and lulled into a false sense of security by the increasing rate of vaccinations, more children, teens, and twenty-somethings are contracting severe disease, requiring hospitalization and even dying tragic deaths from coronavirus. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “We are now entering our fourth week of increased trends in cases… predominantly in younger adults.” In particular, Walensky said, “many outbreaks in young people are related to youth sports and extracurricular activities” that involve their parents.

A day after Republican Montana Governor Greg Gianforte tested positive for COVID-19, his wife Susan Gianforte also tested positive for COVID-19. Governor Gianforte is sick with COVID-19 symptoms including fatigue. The governor had symptoms Sunday and tested positive for COVID the following day. He attended an Easter service at Grace Bible Church in Bozeman prior to developing symptoms. Gianforte repealed Montana’s statewide mask mandate in February, and has said wearing a mask should be a matter of personal responsibility. Also on Monday, the Gallatin City-County Board of Health voted to extend the county’s mask mandate into May amid an upward swing in COVID-19 cases. Several Montana cities and counties have kept local mask requirements because they thought the governor’s move was premature. Gianforte said that he would lift the state’s mask mandate once there were liability protections in place for businesses and health care providers so that people who contracted COVID-19 couldn’t bring lawsuits by customers and employees who contracted the virus in those places.

Bozeman city commissioners on Tuesday appointed Christopher Coburn to the vacant seat on the commission. Coburn, who serves on the Gallatin City-County Board of Health and works for Bozeman Health, was the only applicant after former state legislator Tom Woods withdrew his bid for the seat at the start of the meeting. Coburn will take over for former City Commissioner Michael Wallner, who resigned in March. Coburn’s appointment will run through November. The remaining two years of the term will be on the ballot for November’s elections. Three other commission seats will also be up for election—Commissioners Cunningham, Pomeroy, and Madgic — Mayor Cyndy Andrus’ seat is the only one that will not be on the ballot.