As of Wednesday, January 20, 2021, Montana reports 90,255 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 401 new cases reported in the last day: 60 in Gallatin County, 52 in Lewis & Clark County, 50 in Missoula County, 41 in Flathead County, 39 in Yellowstone County, and more new cases in 32 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 4,906. Statewide, 4,022 people have been hospitalized. Currently, 159 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Gallatin, Lewis & Clark, Flathead, and Cascade Counties. 1,094 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 402,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 24,300,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Amid a devastating pandemic and the threat of domestic terrorism, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States shortly before noon on Wednesday, pledging to unite the country and calling on Americans to end the “uncivil war” that has fractured the nation. The 46th president gave his inaugural address at the Capitol just two weeks after it was attacked by a violent mob. The inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol kept with tradition while being unlike any other inauguration in U.S. history. President Biden took his oath of office before a small, socially distanced audience in a city that has been locked down because of the dual threats of COVID -19, which has killed over 400,000 people in the U.S., and worries over another attack just two weeks after the deadly riot at the Capitol. Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman, the first Black American and the first South Asian American vice president by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina member of the Supreme Court. In an impassioned address, President Biden repeatedly stressed the need for unity, calling it the only “path forward.” While Biden did not once mention Donald Trump by name, his 21-minute speech served as a powerful rebuttal of his predecessor. He also called on the nation to “reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured” — an implicit criticism of a predecessor who frequently lied and relied on misinformation to advance his own political and personal agendas.

Just a few hours after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, his first actions in the White House included signing two executive orders related to climate change — a move that environmental activists say heralds an administration that is ready to take bold steps to undo the damage done over the past four years. Among the slew of executive orders Biden signed on his first day in office were measures to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change and directives to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.