As of Thursday, September 16, 2021, Montana reports 138,493 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,096 new cases of coronavirus infection reported since yesterday: 225 new cases in Yellowstone County, 117 new cases in Missoula County, 111 new cases in Flathead County, 96 new cases in Gallatin County, 81 new cases in Cascade County, and more new cases in 45 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 9,130. There are active coronavirus cases in 55 of 56 Montana counties. Currently, 355 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 1,865 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Seven more deaths have been reported since yesterday. Nationwide, more than 667,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. That’s 1 in every 500 US residents who have died of coronavirus infection. There have been 41,600,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Idaho and Montana hospitals are so overwhelmed with the surge in coronavirus cases that doctors and nurses have to contact dozens of regional hospitals across the West in hopes of finding places to transfer critically ill patients. Kootenai Health, a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has already converted a conference room into an overflow COVID unit, started paying traveling nurses $250 an hour, brought in a military medical unit and received permission from the state to ration care. Billings Clinic has done much the same: the Montana National Guard is assisting at Billings Clinic and the facility has converted hallways and conference rooms to patient care.

Coronavirus outbreaks among students and staff have closed schools across Montana. Noxon High School has moved to remote learning through Sept. 24, and shut down athletics as well, and Plains High School has closed its doors until Monday, also stopping sports. As of Tuesday, they are the only two Montana schools stopping extracurricular activities due to COVID-19, though a handful of other schools have gone to remote learning while keeping athletics on the docket for now.

A COVID-19 outbreak has forced the closure of the Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder’s office. Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder Eric Semerad said he is unsure if people who came into the office would have come into contact with a COVID-19 positive employee.

The Gallatin City-County health department is no longer able to investigate every positive case for contact tracing due to a high active caseload and low staff. Only certain cases — including positive cases involving health care workers, immunocompromised people, students at MSU, and people 65 and older and 18 and younger — will be prioritized for contact tracing.