Two dozen Montana National Guard personnel arrive in Missoula next week to help the county handle what officials say is its deteriorating COVID situation.

Dr. Shelly Harkins, the president and chief medical officer of Helena’s Saint Peter’s Health made this sobering announcement Thursday morning: “For the first time in my career we are at the point where not every patient in need will get the care we might wish we could give.”

In a few months, Montana’s Districting and Apportionment Commission will finalize the state’s new maps outlining political districts. To kick things off, they’re looking at map submissions from the public.

New COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations in Billings are putting so much strain on the local health care system that one hospital may start rationing care as early as this week.