As of Saturday, April 3, 2021, Montana reports 105,035 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 158 new cases reported in the last day: 56 in Gallatin County, 17 in Cascade County, 15 in Missoula County, 13 in Flathead County, 13 in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 18 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 1,000. Currently, 44 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Gallatin, Missoula, and Yellowstone Counties. 1,465 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Twenty-seven more deaths have been reported in the last two days. Nationwide, more than 554,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 30,700,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

The first Broadway theater has opened its doors since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The St. James Theatre in New York on Saturday became the first Broadway theater to reopen since the pandemic shut down performance venues more than a year ago. Nathan Lane, a three-time Tony-winning actor, and Tony-winning choreographer Savion Glover performed for frontline workers at the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on Saturday afternoon. The event is the first of 10 planned on Broadway over the next 10 weeks, “a pilot program devised to create a working model within which Broadway Theatres can ultimately reopen safely. Theatre-goers underwent temperature checks and symptom screenings before entering the theatre and were required to wear facemasks at all times while inside.

A bill in the Montana Legislature that would have banned nonprofits from buying agricultural land, specifically targeting the American Prairie Reserve’s purchase of ranches in central Montana, was tabled in committee on Thursday. The bill died on a unanimous vote after the House Agriculture Committee passed one amendment to the bill and denied another. When the bill was presented on Tuesday to the committee by sponsor Rep. Dan Bartel, R-Lewistown, land trusts and some GOP landowners denounced the bill as an attack on their constitutional right to conduct business between a willing seller and buyer. Some stated the bill was likely unconstitutional.

The Gallatin City-County Board of Health is scheduled to review several COVID-19 related orders on Monday. The board plans to reconsider orders limiting restaurant and bar capacity and other indoor group gatherings, guidelines for isolation and quarantine for people who test positive for COVID-19 or who are exposed, rules limiting visitation at long-term care facilities in the county and the face mask mandate. The health board has modified and extended some of the orders throughout the pandemic. Amid a surge in cases in November, the board limited group gatherings to 25 people, but it loosened limits to allow gatherings of up to 150 in March as cases dwindled and vaccinations rose. Several health orders are set to expire April 20.