As of Thursday, July 22, 2021, Montana reports 115,143 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 141 new cases reported since yesterday: 30 new cases in Yellowstone County, 28 new cases in Cascade County, 27 new cases in Flathead County, 17 new cases in Missoula County, 14 new cases in Gallatin County, and more new cases in 12 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 698. (That’s nearly a hundred more than yesterday.) Currently, 71 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Flathead, Yellowstone, Cascade, Missoula, and Gallatin Counties. 1,695 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 610,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 34,200,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Great discrepancies in vaccination rates nationwide illustrate the differences in illnesses and deaths from COVID-19. Vermont has the highest concentration of vaccinated people, and Alabama has the lowest. In the last 7 days Alabama recorded 901 COVID cases; Vermont recorded 8. Alabama has 65 COVID-19 hospital admissions daily. Vermont has zero. Alabama reported 41 COVID-19 deaths last week. Vermont reported zero.

More positive coronavirus tests at the Olympics will prohibit athletes from competing. Five members of the Czeckoslovakian women’s beach volleyball team have tested positive, and players Markéta Sluková-Nausch and Barbora Hermannova are ruled out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Wildfire smoke is driving people in low-vaccinated areas indoors, raising fears of new coronavirus outbreaks. Smoke from the wildfires burning through bone-dry forests and grasslands in the West has damaged air quality this week from California to the Eastern Seaboard.

Montana state Senator Bryce Bennett, a Democrat from Missoula, is resigning his legislative seat to take a job with a national group called Vote Early Day that helps voters learn how to cast their ballots early. The group is based in Washington, D.C.