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KIPP Texas Connect campus facilities team members Ajaz Ahmed, left, and David Rivera measuring and spray-painting school logos as social distancing markers to prepare for in-person learning this fall Thursday, July 23, 2020, ...

Health officials added 106 new COVID-19 cases to the Montana Response COVID-19 tracking map Saturday morning, with 1,359 cases reported as active. The highest number of new reported cases on Saturday is 30 in Yellowstone County. Gallatin County had the second-highest new case count with 19. Note: Numbers reported by the state each day occasionally differ from those reported by county public health departments due to periodic lag times in reporting data to the state. MTN News counts the updated data individual counties report throughout a given day. The numbers below are from the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services on Saturday, July 18: TOTAL CASES & RECOVERIES: There have now been 2,471 cumulative cases statewide, and 1,075 people have recovered from the virus. ...

The coronavirus circulating across the globe may have close relatives that have not yet been discovered, a hint that the current pandemic will not be the last one to threaten humans. New research published Tuesday in the journal Nature Microbiology finds the current strain, known in the scientific literature as SARS-CoV-2, diverged genetically from other known viruses that circulated in bats between 40 and 70 years ago. Because coronaviruses recombine and evolve into new species frequently, it is all but certain that other strains have evolved within bat populations in China during those intervening years. That means other viruses more closely related to SARS-CoV-2 than its current closest known relative may pose the potential for future outbreaks. “From this ancestor in the 1960s...

PLANTATION, Fla. – A South Florida gym owner was released from jail early Tuesday morning, hours after he was arrested for allowing his gym members to choose whether or not they want to wear a face mask during workouts. “Right now, I’m trusting that everything’s happening for a reason,” Michael Carnevale said. “I was there for maybe six or seven hours. My wife posted bond for me.” Police officers showed up to Carnevale’s business, Fitness 1440 on West Broward Boulevard in Plantation, on Monday after someone reported that the 24-hour gym was violating Broward County’s emergency order requiring masks. Carnevale was ordered to shut it down, but he refused. He spoke to Local 10 News after he was first given a notice to appear in court and before officers took him into custody and locked his...

Two of the country's top infectious disease experts presented a sobering look at the battle still to come against Covid-19. Their message, conveyed during a recent CNBC event, was encapsulated in related views on how much of a difference a coronavirus vaccine can make and what reaching herd immunity in the U.S. population will mean for life across the nation.  "Even with a vaccine, there is no going back to normal anytime soon," said Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking at a CNBC Workforce Executive Council virtual event to human resources executives on July 23 about a safe return to the workplace. "Prepare for at least eight to 12 months of this situation," said Frieden, who now runs the Resolve to Save Lives disease preven...