COVID-19: cases still rising

Confirmed daily cases of COVID-19 hit triple digits in Wyoming for the first time during the pandemic this week. Locally, a minor outbreak in Crook County’s schools and elsewhere in the community appears to have slowed, though a few new cases have continued to crop up.

Three confirmed cases and five probable cases have been added to the tally, bringing Crook County’s totals during the pandemic to 29 confirmed and six probable. Over half the confirmed and all probable cases have been recorded over the past two weeks.

Community spread is documented as present within the county at this time, according to Crook County Public Health. This occurs when a person who has been infected with COVID-19 is unable to identify where or through whom they were exposed to it.

Not knowing how the virus has been passed from person to person is considered an indicator that there are an unknown number of other cases within the community at that time.

At this time, six of the confirmed cases and five probable cases are still listed as active within the state’s statistical record.

Meanwhile, Wyoming saw by far its highest number of daily cases this week when the Wyoming Department of Health announced 104 lab-confirmed cases on Wednesday alone.

Daily case numbers were considerably higher than usual throughout the week, reaching, for example, 85 on Sunday and 73 on Friday.

The high number of new cases across the week has also caused the number of active cases in the state to rise. This number had been steadily dropping and reached 463 on September 14.

However, with new cases outpacing recoveries over the week, active cases reached a new high on Tuesday. At that time, the total number of people either confirmed through testing or listed as probable cases of COVID-19 reached 737.

Three new deaths have also occurred in Wyoming due to COVID-19 in the past week. All three were older adult males and two were known to have health conditions that put them at higher risk of serious illness.

The three men were from Goshen, Natrona and Park counties. Two had been hospitalized during their illness, but the third had not.