As of Wednesday, January 19, 2022. Montana reports 218,047 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 2,051 new cases of coronavirus infection reported since yesterday: 306 new cases in Gallatin County, 259 new cases in Missoula County, 233 new cases in Yellowstone County, 184 new cases in Cascade County, 144 new cases in Flathead County, 117 new cases in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 49 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 11,242. Currently, 242 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 2,964 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Seven more people’s deaths have been reported since Friday. Nationwide, more than 854,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 67,700,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise against travel to 22 nations and territories due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases, including Israel, Australia, Egypt, Albania, Argentina and Uruguay. The CDC uses a four-level danger categorization, and elevated its travel recommendation to “Level Four: Very High,” telling Americans they should avoid travel to those destinations, among others.

The Biden administration will make 400 million N95 masks available for free at thousands of locations across the country as health experts stress the importance of high-quality face coverings to protect against the highly-transmissable omicron variant of the coronavirus. The rollout will be with pharmacies and community health centers to distribute the nonsurgical masks, which will come from the Strategic National Stockpile.

A Jamaican four-man bobsled team is back in the Winter Olympics for the first time in almost 30 years after it qualified for a spot in next month’s competition in Beijing. It’s the first time the four-man Jamaican team has earned a berth in the Winter Olympics since the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan.