As of Saturday, December 19, 2020, Montana reports 76,619 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 750 new cases reported in the last day: 122 in Yellowstone County, 91 in Missoula County, 69 in Lewis & Clark County, 56 in Flathead County, 44 in Gallatin County, 42 in Cascade County, 42 in Richland County, 37 in Silver Bow County, and more new cases in 35 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 8,484. Statewide, 3,248 people have been hospitalized, and 267 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Cascade, Lewis & Clark, Missoula, and Flathead Counties. 864 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Ten more deaths have been reported in the last day. Nationwide, more than 315,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 17,600,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

A mutant strain of coronavirus is spreading quickly in the UK. Millions of people in London and the U.K.’s southeast will be forced to cancel their Christmas plans after scientists said Saturday that a new coronavirus variant was spreading quickly. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the toughest set of coronavirus restrictions — known as “Tier 4” — will be put in place from Sunday, putting regions under the strictest lockdown rules. Great Britain’s non-essential shops, gyms, cinemas, hairdressers and bowling alleys will be forced to close for two weeks, while people will be restricted to meeting one other person from another household in an outdoor public space. The chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, said that the U.K. had informed the World Health Organization about the mutant strain. “As announced on Monday, the U.K. has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” he said, adding that preliminary modeling data and rising cases in the country’s southeast showed “the new strain can spread more quickly.”

A North Carolina church gathered congregants for a musical Christmas celebration earlier this month, and within a matter of days, at least 75 COVID-19 infections had been traced back to the event. The Henderson County, North Carolina Health Department links a growing number of cases of COVID-19 to one caroling event held at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville. The holiday celebration held Dec. 5 at First Baptist was a superspreader event: “To date, the Health Department has identified 75 individuals who have tested positive as a result of the event.” The impact of the event was immediately visible on the church’s Facebook page, where upbeat posts about the holidays and upcoming events quickly gave way to last-minute event cancellations and “special announcements” from the pastors about new COVID-19 cases among congregants. The Asheville Citizen Times reports that several people who attended the North Carolina Christmas event said many attendees were not wearing masks, and members of the choir stood shoulder to shoulder as they belted out songs without face coverings. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has pleaded with churches to hold online services amid the pandemic, warning that singing in groups is an activity that poses a high risk of coronavirus transmission.

A Minnesota state senator has died from COVID-19. Republican Sen. Jerry Relph became infected at a Republicans Caucus meeting on Nov. 5, where other senators were also infected. He began quarantining on Nov. 10 and started seeing symptoms three days later.

Eight Catholic nuns living at a retirement home for sisters in suburban Milwaukee died of COVID-19 in the last week — including four who passed away on the same day — a grim reminder of how quickly the virus can spread in congregate living situations, even when precautions are taken. Notre Dame of Elm Grove in Wisconsin had been free of the virus for the last nine months, but the congregation that runs the home found out on Thanksgiving Day that one of the roughly 100 sisters who live there had tested positive. Despite social distancing and other mitigation efforts that were already in place, several more positive tests followed. The outbreak comes months after similar homes had reported multiple deaths from the coronavirus. In July, 13 nuns died at a convent near Detroit and seven died at a center for Maryknoll sisters in New York. At least six nuns also died at Our Lady of the Angels convent in Greenfield, Wisconsin, and earlier this month, church authorities said 76 Catholic nuns tested positive for COVID-19 after an outbreak at a Franciscan convent in northwestern Germany, forcing health authorities to put the entire monastery under quarantine. Convents share some of the same issues as nursing homes, which are the hardest-hit sector in the U.S. in terms of COVID-19 deaths. In many cases, their populations are elderly and live in close quarters with one another.