As of Tuesday, March 8, 2022, Montana reports 271,336 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 150 new cases of coronavirus infection reported since Friday: 26 new cases in Gallatin County, 21 new cases in Yellowstone County, 20 new cases in Missoula County, 14 new cases in Cascade County, 13 new cases in Flathead County, 13 new cases in Lewis & Clark County, and more new cases in 19 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 942. Currently, 83 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 3,209 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 959,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 79,200,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Montana is trailing only Idaho in highest daily case counts. Though cases are still high, hospitalizations are the lowest since July 2021. In total, 11,700 people have been hospitalized in Montana for COVID-19. In the last seven days, 22 more Montanans died from COVID-related illness, bringing the total to 3,209 deaths.

A Republican state representative, Frank Fleming of Billings, died Sunday. He was 68. Fleming had initially planned to run for another term in the
state House, but announced in late January he would not seek re-election to House District 51 due to medical reasons.

A lawsuit filed in June 2021 in district court by a coalition of students, staff and higher education leaders argued that four laws passed by the Montana Legislature infringed on the constitutional authority of the Board of Regents to set policy for the Montana University System. The lawsuit names Republican Governor Greg Gianforte, Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and the State of Montana as defendants.

Yellowstone National Park has started closing roads to oversnow travel in order to plow and prepare for roads to reopen to car traffic in mid-April. Starting Sunday, the park began closing some roads to snowmobiles, snow coaches and other oversnow vehicles. Snowplows have started clearing those roads to get them ready for personal vehicles. All closed roads are scheduled to reopen to car traffic on April 15.