As of Wednesday, July 22, 2020, Montana reports 2,813 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 104 new cases reported in the last day: 34 new cases in Gallatin County, 27 new cases in Yellowstone County, 15 new cases in Big Horn County, 6 new cases in Flathead County, 5 in Lewis & Clark County, 3 new cases in Richland County, 2 new cases in Custer County, and 1 new case in each of Beaverhead, Carbon, Garfield, Jefferson, Judith Basin, Park, Pondera, Rosebud, Sheridan, Silver Bow, Stillwater, and Sweet Grass Counties. Statewide, 179 people have been hospitalized, and 52 people are currently being treated in the hospital for COVID-19. Yellowstone County has had 756 cases so far. Gallatin County has 664 coronavirus cases so far. The most active cases are in Yellowstone County, with 482 active cases. There have been 2more deaths at the Canyon Creek Memory Care nursing home in Billings as the result of a coronavirus outbreak in that facility. 12 of the 55 residents there have died recently of COVID-19. A Yellowstone County man in his 60s died at his home on Tuesday, and a Sweet Grass County man in his 80s also died in the hospital. Statewide, 42 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 145,000 Americans have died.

Montana State University will begin processing COVID-19 tests, up to 500 per day, starting next week, to help overcome the backlog of testing in the state. MSU’s lab will be processing mostly asymptomatic tests. The state is also finalizing a partnership with a North Carolina facility, which is set to process at least 1,000 tests per day. The partnerships are intended to fill the gap left by Quest Diagnostics, the private company that had been processing Montana tests collected at surveillance testing events but became overwhelmed. Quest Diagnostics won’t be able to process Montana tests for several weeks.

Montana State University will host its 2020 Convocation on Thursday, Aug. 27, with a number of adaptations in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event will be will be held outdoors at Bobcat Stadium to allow the members of the incoming first-year class to be socially distanced during the event. Convocation will be closed to the public, but will be livestreamed and accessible to all on the MSU convocation website: https://www.montana.edu/convocation/.

Limiting the coronavirus surge in Bozeman is pivotal in order for Montana State to play football this fall, but cases have spiked recently with community transmission of the virus. As the season nears and uncertainty looms, the Big Sky Conference will make a decision on fall sports within the next two weeks. Several conferences around the country have announced plans to move fall sports to the spring or eliminate non-conference games this fall. MSU’s Sept. 12 game at Utah, of the Pac-12 conference, has already been canceled. Big Sky Conference administrators have discussed the possibility of moving the football season to the spring. MSU is also considering a season independent from the Big Sky if the conference were to call off its fall seasons.