Warning signs of pandemic surge appearing across state

From the perspective of local healthcare providers, the pandemic has been in flux for the last few weeks. According to CEO Micki Lyons, Crook County Medical Services District (CCMSD) has been following a pattern of a few COVID-19 patients one week, then none for the next; admitting a positive inpatient one week then not seeing more for a little while.

The State of Wyoming is sticking in the range of 350 new cases per week, Lyons said. For this reason, things will be staying the same within Crook County Memorial Hospital.

Visitation is still open at the long-term care unit, Lyons said, and the same is true for the hospital itself.

“As long as we don’t have positive inpatients, we’re allowing visitors I believe two at a time per patient,” she said on Thursday.

Vaccine Program

Vaccination rates remain low in this county. As of Monday, however, almost one in five people have been fully vaccinated.

The Wyoming Department of Health reports that 19.93% of Crook County citizens have now received both shots. This includes 45.77% of the population over the age of 65 and 25.31% of the population over the age of 18.

At this time, Crook County is still the second least vaccinated county in the state, behind only Campbell County at 19.66%. Speaking at last week’s CCMSD board meetng, Trustee Sandy Neiman suggested that the county’s proximity to the South Dakota border may offer a partial explanation for the low numbers.

“We might have a lot more people vaccinated,” she suggested, pointing out that it won’t necessarily show up on this county’s statistics if a county resident goes to a clinic or pharmacy in South Dakota to receive their vaccine.

Current Stats

No additional local cases involving the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus have been reported over the last week. Crook County saw just two new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number to 432 confirmed and 38 probable cases.

On Monday, the active case count in Wyoming was at levels not seen since February after increasing by 141 over the last week. This brings the total active case number to 716.

This number was, however, lower than it had been at the weekend. On Friday, for the first time since February 11, the active case count exceeded 800.

Laramie County is still the hotspot for the more contagious Delta variant of the virus. The Wyoming Tribute Eagle reported last week that Laramie County had accounted for 74% of the state’s Delta-related cases over the previous week.

The Casper Star Tribune meanwhile reported on Monday that Delta is now the dominant strain in this state and that the metrics guiding public health decisions are growing increasingly concerning.

Hospitalizations continue to climb across the state, reaching a total of 78 by July 23. As well as a significant climb from the 66 hospitalized one week before, this is also a number not seen since the beginning of the year as the largest wave of COVID-19 infections was slowly coming to a close; 74 patients, for example, were hospitalized on January 22.

Also on July 23, two COVID-19 patients were admitted to Crook County Memorial Hospital.

According to the Casper Star Tribune, the majority of hospitalized patients recently have not been vaccinated. The newspaper estimates that 93% of hospitalized patients between May 1 and July 19 were unvaccinated.

The number of deaths attributed to the virus increased by six over the last week. This included two people from Laramie County, two from Sweetwater County and one each from Albany and Converse Counties.

This brings the total Wyoming deaths caused by COVID-19 to 766.