LTC reopens, but Delta variant is on the rise

Micki Lyons, CEO of Crook County Medical Services District, was able to confirm last week that the long term care unit is once again open to visitation.

“We did have a positive employee in our long term care, which caused us to have to lock down our long term care to visitors for two weeks,” she stated.

However, as there have been no further positive COVID-19 tests, the unit has been opened back up.

Lyons reported that the infection numbers in Wyoming are “staying pretty steady” and at this time there are no hotspots near this county.

Wyoming Department of Health statistics confirm that Crook County has had no new cases over the last week, which contrasts with the six new lab confirmed cases reported the week before. Of the 455 active cases in Wyoming at this time – an increase of 50 over the last week – just two are in this county, while of the 50 patients in hospital due to COVID-19 on June 28, none were inpatients with CCMSD. However, one new death in this county due to COVID-19 was announced on Tuesday.

Due to the lowered risk in this area, said Lyons, CCMSD has downgraded its weekly meetings about the pandemic to monthly. However, she said, “We’re in the top three lowest counties” for vaccinations in Wyoming, which is less positive.

In fact, Crook County has the second lowest vaccination rate in the state at 18.42%, coming in just behind Campbell County at 18.07%. By contrast, the county with the highest vaccination rate is Teton at 57.87%, followed by Albany at 42.88%.

Vaccine Success

The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) has released the results of a review into the effectiveness of the vaccine program, which shows that just under 95% of the people who tested positive between May 1 and June 15 were not fully vaccinated.

The review looked at more than 2400 lab confirmed and probable cases among Wyomingites aged 16 or above. During that same period, according to the WDH, over 93% of the 150 people who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 did not report being fully vaccinated.

To date, according to the WDH, there has been only one COVID-19 related death of a fully vaccinated person in Wyoming.

According to state health officer Dr. Alexia Harrist, this appears to be consistent with what the data is showing across the nation.

“We are seeing excellent results among those who have been vaccinated. The vast majority of recent, new cases have involved people who were not yet fully vaccinated,” she said.

“It’s clear vaccines are the key to seeing fewer COVID-19 illnesses and there is no question we’d like to see higher vaccine coverage rates in our state.”

While Wyoming’s daily case numbers have been stable recently, Harrist also said that they are not dropping as quickly as states with more complete vaccination coverage.

“In fact, our rate of new cases adjusted for our population is among the highest in the nation. Hospitalizations have increased in recent weeks and this is something we hate to see happen when we know it could largely be avoided through vaccination,” she said.

Delta Variant

This news comes as the presence of the new Delta variant begins to grow in Wyoming, particularly in the southeast portion of the state. The Casper Star Tribune reported last week that the variant is most concentrated in Laramie County, with 34 infections identified there as of Monday.

According to the report, a handful of variant infections have also been identified in Natrona, Fremont, Sweetwater and Albany counties.

“The data is showing this variant is more easily transmitted than other strains, meaning it spreads more easily between people and spreads to more people,” Harrist said.

“Early information is also showing this variant may be associated with higher likelihood of severe illness than other variants.”

Vaccines, according to Harrist, are proving effective against this variant.

According to the Casper Star Tribune, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center is already seeing an effect from the variant. That hospital had 26 virus patients as of Wednesday, and 12 of 25 intensive care unit beds were in use.