Montana has 158 new COVID-19 cases, 11 deaths since Friday

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The state posted 158 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing Montana’s total to 105,035 confirmed reports.

Of the total cases, 102,570 are recovered and 1,000 remain active. There are 44 people who are now hospitalized out of 4,802 total hospitalizations. Montana added 11 deaths since Friday’s report, bringing the total to 1,465 fatalities related to the respiratory illness.

The state has administered 1,211,006 tests for the coronavirus, which is 4,531 more than Friday, the Great Falls Tribune reported.

To date, the state has administered 520,892 total doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 208,603 residents are fully immunized.

Cascade County opened appointments for residents to schedule their first COVID-19 vaccine doses through their community clinic. As of Friday afternoon only about 40% of the appointment slots had been claimed.

As of Saturday morning several time slots were still available for vaccination appointments between April 6 and April 9. All residents over 16 years of age are eligible to receive the vaccine at this time.

Gallatin County topped the state and posted 56 new COVID-19 cases, accounting for about a third of the cases reported on Saturday. The county has had 13,300 COVID-19 cases and 281 remain active, the most of any county in the state.

Cascade County reported 17 cases. The county now has 54 active cases, 8,266 recoveries and 151 deaths out of 8,471 cumulative cases.

Missoula County added 15 new cases, bringing it to 106 active reports. Flathead and Lewis and Clark counties each reported 13 cases. Yellowstone County posted eight, and now has 114 active reports.

In northcentral Montana, Fergus County reported three new cases, bringing it to 1,089 total cases, five of which remain active. Meagher County added two new cases, which are the only active reports in the county. Pondera County now has two active cases after posting one new case on Saturday.