As of Thursday, December 16, 2021, Montana reports 194,562 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 164 new cases of coronavirus infection reported since yesterday: 25 new cases in Gallatin County, 20 new cases in Missoula County, 17 new cases in Flathead County, 15 new cases in Yellowstone County, and more new cases in 25 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 2,048. Currently, 152 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 2,873 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Four more people’s death have been reported since Friday. Nationwide, more than 801,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 50,300,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

COVID transmission and illness is battering sports leagues, with the NBA, NFL, and NHL sidelining key players and postponing games. The NFL reported about 100 new cases in the league’s worst two-day stretch during the pandemic. About 25 NBA players are in the league’s COVID-19 protocols. The National Hockey League also has been forced to postpone games. More than 140 NHL players have been on the COVID protocol list this season — including more than two dozen since Monday.

Montana’s Junior Senator, Republican Steve Daines, voted last week to cut Medicare payments to rural health providers by 9 percent starting in the new year. Montana’s Democratic senior Senator Jon Tester was joined by 10 other Republican Senators to vote in favor of the bill, which provides vital support to Montana seniors and health care providers.

An ice shelf on Antarctica could crack and disintegrate within the next decade, releasing a Florida-sized glacier to slide into the ocean and raise sea levels by several feet, scientists warned on Wednesday. Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is the “widest glacier in the world” and is known as the “Doomsday glacier,” due to the serious risk it poses during its melting process.