As of Friday, November 12, 2021, Montana reports 184,394 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,188 new cases of coronavirus infection reported since yesterday: 222 new cases in Cascade County, 193 new cases in Yellowstone County, 112 new cases in Missoula County, 88 new cases in Gallatin County, 83 new cases in Flathead County, and more new cases in 38 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 7,361. Currently, 320 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 2,479 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Twenty-eight more people’s deaths have been reported since yesterday. Nationwide, more than 759,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 46,800,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Add whitetail deer to the list of animals that can contract and carry COVID-19. A recently released Iowa study found about one-third of 280 captive and free-ranging deer had tested positive for the infection, raising concerns about deer being a reservoir for the virus to mutate.

Election officials in Montana are ringing alarm bells that the Secretary of State’s plan to implement new election software at the start of the year could leave them with a largely untested, unworkable system for next year’s federal elections. Republican Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen is planning to replace a statewide election database system in January that tracks voter registrations and interacts with nearly all levels of running elections, from updating precincts to printing and accepting ballots.