As of Friday, August 13, 2021, Montana reports 119,864 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 352 new cases reported in the last day: 71 new cases in Flathead County, 56 new cases in Cascade County, 47 new cases in Missoula County, 44 new cases in Yellowstone County, and more new cases in 27 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 2,659. Currently, 180 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 1,730 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 620,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 36,400,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

A CDC committee will recommend to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky that certain patients with weakened immune systems should receive an extra dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. Walensky must sign off on the committee’s decision before physicians can start giving patients the extra dose.

A man from Reed Point was sentenced and ordered to pay a fine and restitution after using the poison strychnine to kill a wolf on a ranch near Ennis in 2019. Jeffrey Wood, 49, pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful use of a registered pesticide, a misdemeanor. He must pay a $500 fine and $1,000 restitution to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

2020 Census data reflects the high rate of growth in Bozeman and Gallatin County. Bozeman has reached the threshold to be categorized as a metropolitan city now that the city exceeds the 50,000 population mark. The census data put Bozeman’s population at 53,293, an increase of more than 16,000 people since the 2010 Census. The population for the state broke the million person threshold, and totals more than 1.08 million people, and granting the state an additional congressional district for the first time since the 1990s.