As of Wednesday, March 17, 2021, Montana reports 102,484 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 143 new cases reported in the last day: 21 in Yellowstone County, 39 in Gallatin County, 23 in Missoula County, 13 in Ravalli County, and more new cases in 19 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 941. Currently, 58 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Gallatin, Missoula, and Yellowstone Counties. 1,396 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 536,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 29,500,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Montana will make the COVID-19 vaccine available to all residents age 16 and older by April 1. State officials, on a weekly call with the White House, were told that vaccine manufacturing is ramping up. Supplies are expected to remain steady for the next two weeks and Montana should see an increase in doses in the first week of April.
The state is also expanding the use of pharmacies to give vaccinations as supplies increase. Montana created and moved to Phase 1B+ in early March. That group included people ages 60 and older, as well as expanded qualifying health conditions. The move announced Tuesday by Gianforte eliminates the next phase Montana was expected to enter, Phase 1C, which would have focused on frontline workers.

The Jefferson County Health Department said the clinics are scheduled for March 19 and 30 at the Montana City Volunteer Fire Department, March 23 at Whitehall High School, and March 25 at Boulder Jefferson High School. The clinics are open to all Jefferson County residents eligible to receive a vaccine under Montana’s Phase 1B+ category of the vaccine distribution plan. Elkhorn Pharmacy in Boulder is offering up doses of the Pfizer vaccine it was provided through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program recently initiated by the Biden Administration.

A Belgrade business owner has been arrested in connection to the U.S. Capitol riots. Andrew Cavanaugh of Bozeman is accused of knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to criminal complaints and an arrest warrant filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the day of Cavanaugh’s arrest. Cavanaugh wore a hat with the name of his business, a firearm academy in Belgrade called “Tactical Citizen,” while participating in the riots, according to the FBI. Federal agents identified Cavanaugh in a video taken in the Capitol and posted on the conservative social media site Parler.