An Omicron Wave

Across the country there have been winter surges in COVID-19 cases, most related to the Omicron variant, and Montana is not immune. Flathead County is seeing the highest levels of hospitalizations and case numbers since the height of the delta-variant surge last fall and hospital staff are close to being overwhelmed. On Monday, the county health department's last situation update reported 222 new cases, 2701 active cases and 55 hospitalizations. Reporter Mike Kordenbrock joins host Micah Drew to break down some of the latest COVID-19 numbers and what it means for residents. Later, Micah runs through the latest stories from the last week including ongoing litigation over a nearby water bottling plant, the end of Whitefish's permanent recycling site, the approval of a new hotel in Kalispell and the new name for Flathead's professional sports team. Read more about all of this week's stories and get the latest breaking news at flatheadbeacon.com and sign up for our new daily newsletter at flatheadbeacon.com/newsletter. RELATED LINKS January 26 E-Edition Hospitalizations in Flathead County Nearing Delta Surge Numbers Supreme Court to Determine Legality of Creston Water Bottling Plant Whitefish to Permanently Close Recycling Site Jan. 31 Kalispell Council Approves Five-Story Downtown Charles Hotel Flathead Valley Baseball Team Reveals Name, Logo Flathead Living E-Edition The music in this this episode is “Thinking Music” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, The episode also features two songs from local singer/songwriter Mike Murray's album We Are Like Warriors, "The Good Ol' Days You're In" and "Moment of Time," used with permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.