As of Tuesday, October 27, 2020, Montana reports 29,346 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the third-highest record number of new coronavirus cases in Montana, 855, reported in the last day: 107 in Flathead County, 88 in Cascade County, 80 in Lewis & Clark County, 79 in Yellowstone County, 72 in Glacier County, 63 in Gallatin County, 61 in Missoula County, 42 in Hill County, 28 in Roosevelt County, 27 in Ravalli County, 20 in Big Horn County, 19 in Custer County, 17 in Richland County, and more new cases in 30 more Montana counties. Statewide, 1,245 people have been hospitalized, and 350 people are currently being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. There are 10,060 active coronavirus cases in Montana. The most active cases are in the southeast part of the state in Yellowstone County, and in the northwest corner of the state in Flathead and Glacier and Missoula Counties, in the west central counties of Cascade, and Lewis & Clark, and in the southwest, Gallatin County. 305 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 226,000 Americans have died. There have been 8,820,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

COVID-19 cases at the Montana Women’s Prison in Billings jumped from 5 to 48 over the weekend, and twelve staff at Montana Women’s Prison have also tested positive for the virus. Montana State Prison, the state facility which houses male inmates near Deer Lodge, has a coronavirus case count over 200. The state prison saw its first cases in mid-October; on Monday the Department of Corrections listed 203 coronavirus cases. Fourteen additional staff have tested positive, for a new total of 75 prison staff. The facility has a total of 701 staff and an inmate population of 1,407. Five inmates from the men’s prison were hospitalized Tuesday. No inmates from the COVID-19 cluster at the Montana Women’s Prison were hospitalized. The rising caseload among inmates at staff at Montana’s prisons has the corrections department pressed for personnel. On Monday, the Department of Corrections announced it had requested Gov. Steve Bullock activate the Montana Army National Guard for assistance at the Montana State Prison. In Shelby, the for-profit private prison Crossroads Correctional Center has so far seen the greatest COVID-19 outbreak of any prison facility in the state with 255 cases and a test positivity rate of 43% earlier this month.

Because of the spike in coronavirus cases in Montana, and the high test positivity rate in Montana for coronavirus, the CDC is recommending that masks always be worn outside one’s home, avoid bars and gyms, restaurants should max at 25% capacity, gatherings should be limited to no more than 10 people with physical distancing, and schools should do remote learning only (no in-person classes).

The Bozeman School District plans to reopen the elementary schools next week. Prekindergarten to fifth grade will be the first of the grade levels to transition to five days of in-person learning on Nov. 2, as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Gallatin County, with three record daily case counts reported last week. Three weeks after the prekindergarten to fifth grades transition, middle schools will open to full in-person classes at the start of the second trimester, Nov. 23. The high school will be the last school level to move to full in-person learning with the start of the second semester, Jan. 25. Last week, the school district averaged 24 adult staff and 130 students in quarantine, according to its daily quarantine and isolation tracker. Friday had the highest number of students in quarantine, with 161.