As of Monday, July 12, 2021, Montana reports 114,325 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 91 new cases reported since Friday: 25 new cases in Flathead County, 15 new cases in Cascade County, 11 new cases in Yellowstone County, 8 new cases in Missoula County, and more new cases in 18 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 466. Currently, 51 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead, Cascade, and Missoula Counties. 1,674 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 606,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 33,800,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

As the Delta variant rapidly spreads, US hot spots have seen climbing case numbers — and experts warn that a “surprising amount of death” from COVID-19 could soon follow. The US averaged more than 19,000 new cases over the last seven days, a 47% increase from the week prior. And a third of those COVID cases are in five hot spots: Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Nevada.

In Texas, Republican-backed bills to restrict voting and voting registration are moving rapidly through a special session of the Texas state Legislature, so Texas Democrats are planning to leave the capitol, Austin, in an effort to block the measures from advancing. The unusual move, akin to what Democrats did in 2003, would paralyze the chamber, stopping business until the lawmakers return to town or the session ends.

Bozeman City commissioners plan to vote Tuesday on putting a question to voters on the November ballot to establish an affordable housing tax levy. The proposed ballot measure would be an annual levy of up to seven mills to go toward acquiring, building, preserving or supporting community housing projects.