Vaccines trickle into county

The first doses of the Moderna vaccine have arrived in Crook County and are set to be administered this week, according to Carol Stutzman, Public Health Nurse Manager.

In accordance with the state’s priority plan, the first to receive them will be first responders and healthcare employees.

“It is to be used for the first tier of Phase I, for providers and people that are giving direct care to acute COVID 19 patients in the hospital,” she says.

A total of 200 doses have been received.

“There will be enough to vaccinate all our employees and residents that want the vaccine,” says Charity Lindholm, Infection Preventionist for Crook County Medical Services District (CCMSD).

However, a second expected batch of doses will no longer be arriving at the expected time, according to Stutzman.

“We thought we would be getting an additional 100 doses this week, but that has changed and we will not be getting any more dose until January sometime,” she says.

Nevertheless, members of the community who would like to be immunized against COVID-19 are still invited to call Public Health.

“We continue to take names of the general public that would like to receive the vaccine, but again, have no time frame as to when that will occur,” Stutzman says.

As of Monday, Wyoming as a whole had received a total of 16,725 doses of the vaccine, of which 9900 are the Moderna version. So far, 3033 of those doses are recorded to have been administered.

The Moderna vaccine is said to be around 94.5% effective in protecting against the COVID-19 virus. Neither of the vaccines approved by the FDA so far are believed to be any less efficient in protecting against the new, more contagious strains of COVID-19 that have been popping up across the world. A new variant discovered recently in the UK has now been confirmed in European countries including Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and France, as well as in Canada and Japan; meanwhile, a second new strain has been identified in South Africa.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), mutations are only to be expected. Viruses constantly change and the more successful mutations are the ones most likely to stick around.

In the case of the two new global strains, the mutations appear to have altered the spikes on the virus and made it easier for the virus to transmit from person to person. Scientists have not yet seen any evidence that infections lead to more severe disease, according to the CDC.

Local Situation

Over the last week, the pandemic has continued to slow across Wyoming. In Crook County, just ten new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been added to the total over the last week.

This brings the overall total number of lab confirmed cases in this county to 357, while probable cases have risen by one to 28.

Partly due to a two-day break in reporting over the Christmas holiday, the number of new cases across Wyoming also rose by a relatively small amount. From 36,550 last Tuesday to 37,167 on Sunday, the state saw just 617 new infections over the week.

This has also further driven down the number of active cases in the state, thanks to the number of recoveries. On Sunday, there were just 1481 active COVID-19 cases in Wyoming.

Hospitalizations have also continued to decline. After reaching an all-time high of 247 on November 30, the total number of COVID-19 inpatients in the state had dropped to 117 by the beginning of this week.

In Crook County, hospitalizations dropped to three on December 18 and then zero on December 21. Since that time, there have been no COVID-19 inpatients within the hospital in Sundance.

Increase in Deaths

The death count in Wyoming, however, continues to increase. On December 22, the Wyoming Department of Health announced 22 more people had passed away due to COVID-19, while 32 additional deaths were confirmed on Monday.

Of those 54 deaths, 21 were residents of long-term care facilities and 41 were known to have health conditions that put them at greater risk of serious illness.

At this time, COVID-19 has caused the death of 405 people in Wyoming. Six of those deaths took place in Crook County.

Federal Aid

President Donald Trump this week signed into law a new coronavirus relief and spending package bill negotiated by Congress. Worth more than $900 billion, it restores unemployment benefits for around 14 million out-of-work Americans and includes stimulus checks of $600 for Americans earning less than $75,000 per year.