As of Thursday, July 9, 2020, Montana reports 1,466 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 96 new cases reported, the third time in a week Montana set a record high for the number of new daily cases. The United States has set its fifth record in nine days for new cases, with more than 59,400 new cases in the U.S. reported on Wednesday. New cases are increasing dramatically in 36 states, steady in 12, and decreasing in only two states: Vermont and New Hampshire. The 96 new cases in Montana include forty-six new cases in Yellowstone County, fourteen in Lake County, nine in Big Horn County, seven new cases in Gallatin County, four new cases in each of Cascade and Custer Counties, two new cases in each of Lincoln, Missoula, and Ravalli Counties, and one new case in each of Beaverhead, Hill, Lewis & Clark, Madison, Roosevelt, and Stillwater Counties. Statewide, 120 people have been hospitalized, and twenty-four people are currently being treated in the hospital for COVID-19. Yellowstone County has 377 cases so far, surpassing Gallatin County, with 334 cases so far. The most active cases are in Yellowstone County, with 235 active cases, followed by Gallatin County, with 102 active cases and Missoula County with 53 active cases. Statewide, 796 people have recovered from the disease. 25 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 134,000 Americans have died.

There have been three deaths since Monday from the Canyon Creek Memory Care nursing home and its COVID-19 outbreak in Billings. All three people died at the senior care facility. Yellowstone County has now had seven deaths from COVID-19, more than any other county in Montana. Riverstone Health, the owner of the nursing home, issued a press release Thursday morning. On Monday a woman in her 70s died, on Wednesday a woman in her 80s died, and on Thursday a man in his 90s died.

A popular Downtown Bozeman steakhouse, Open Range, is temporarily closed after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. All restaurant staff at Open Range are being tested for coronavirus.

A Missouri summer camp has closed after at least 82 kids and staff were infected with coronavirus. Kanakuk Kamps, a network of Christian sports camps in Missouri, recommends a 14-day self-quarantine and monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19 for kids and their families.

The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, a little over 2 weeks after President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in an indoor arena there. The Tulsa Health Department is reporting high numbers of cases this week, with nearly 500 new cases in two days and trends showing that those numbers will increase. There had been a 20% decline in new Covid-19 cases the week prior to the president’s rally.

The World Health Organization acknowledged the importance of two forms of transmission of coronavirus: aerosolized microdroplets that can linger in indoor air for hours, and infected people who do not have symptoms.

Neurologists are warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms. Details of more than 40 Covid-19 patients in the United Kingdom include complications ranging from brain inflammation and delirium to nerve damage and stroke. In some cases, the neurological problem was the patient’s first and main symptom. The cases, published in the journal Brain, revealed a rise in a life-threatening condition called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (Adem), as the first wave of infections swept through Britain. Adem cases rose from one a month before the pandemic to two or three per week in April and May. One woman, who was 59, died of the complication. A dozen patients had inflammation of the central nervous system, 10 had brain disease with delirium or psychosis, eight had strokes and a further eight had peripheral nerve problems, mostly diagnosed as Guillain-Barrésyndrome, an immune reaction that attacks the nerves and causes paralysis. It is fatal in 5% of cases.

Neurologists are seeing things in the way COVID -19 affects the brain that they haven’t seen before with other viruses. With some Adem patients, and in other patients, there can be severe neurology, and a patient can be quite sick, but actually have trivial lung disease, the symptom first associated with COVID-19. The cases add to concerns over the long-term health effects of COVID -19, which have left some patients breathless and fatigued long after they have cleared the virus, and others with numbness, weakness and memory problems.