As of Saturday, January 9, 2021, Montana reports 86,102 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 555 new cases reported in the last day: 75 in Yellowstone County, 73 in Gallatin County, 67 in Missoula County, 53 in Flathead County, 39 in Lewis & Clark County, 35 in Big Horn County, 34 in Lincoln County, and more new cases in 32 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 5,142. Statewide, 3,837 people have been hospitalized, and 204 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Cascade, Lewis & Clark, and Gallatin Counties. 1,054 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. 16 more deaths of Montanans were reported in the last day. Nationwide, more than 373,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 22,200,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

A newly elected Republican lawmaker in West Virginia resigned Saturday after he was arrested for trespassing in the U.S. Capitol in a mob of Trump supporters hoping to halt President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Derrick Evans, 35, chronicled the riot Wednesday on Facebook Live, capturing the moment the crowd cracked open the Capitol’s doors and he crossed the threshold. Evans was among dozens arrested for crimes related to the break-in. On Friday, he was charged with two federal misdemeanors, unlawfully entering restricted grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct, and taken into custody, according to the Department of Justice. Evans ended his short tenure with a one-sentence resignation letter to Gov. Jim Justice (R). He was sworn in to the House of Delegates last month.

As Gallatin County moves toward completing the first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations for frontline health care workers, plans for distributing the vaccine to much larger groups of people are underway. Earlier this week, a change to the state’s vaccine priority list expanded the number of people in the next phase from 90,000 to about 250,000, according to Gallatin City-County Health Officer Matt Kelley. It also moved people over 70 and those ages 16 to 69 with compromising health conditions ahead of essential workers like teachers or grocery store workers, and those living in group settings. “We don’t have enough vaccine to go around and all these decisions that we’re making have tradeoffs,” Kelley said during a press conference Friday. “So what we’re going to be doing is working within the parameters that the governor has laid out, and we’re looking at ways … within the scope of that system to be able to make decisions for our community and get vaccines to people who will most benefit.” The county began vaccinating health care workers at the fairgrounds this week, and Kelley said the county expects to finish administering first-round doses out to those within the 1A group by the end of next week. Employees and residents of long-term care facilities are also eligible for the vaccine in the first group. Kelley said they are preparing for when the state will move into the next phase of vaccinations. The county will likely work with health care providers to notify their patients who fall into the next phase that they are eligible for a vaccine, he said.

The Bozeman School Board will reevaluate the learning model for all three school levels on Monday’s meeting, although it’s unclear what recommendations the district administration will make. Board members will determine if the middle and high schools should transition to five days of in-person learning or remain in the blended model of learning they started the school year with. The board will also review if the elementary schools should remain in the five days of in-person learning or transition to a blended model. Prekindergarten to fifth grades have been in five days of learning since Nov. 2. The agenda stated they would wait for full COVID metrics and matrix data for the week of Jan. 4 before making a recommendation to be presented during the Jan. 11 meeting. As of Thursday, there were 11 active cases of COVID-19 in the district’s schools, according to the Gallatin City-County Health Department. The district returned from winter break on Jan. 4.