Visitation not impacted by Omicron increase

As Omicron continues its rapid spread across the world, case rates are once again on the rise in Crook County. However, those looking to visit loved ones in the hospital or long-term care unit will not be affected by this increase.

Local transmission of the virus is “back to a high, we’re in the red again,” according to CEO Micki Lyons of Crook County Medical Services District. At this time, the rate of tests coming back with a positive result is back above 20%.

The hospital, she says, is still receiving COVID-19 inpatients.

“Just when we think we’re out of the woods, we’re not…but that’s happening around the country,” Lyons said.

However, rules established around six weeks ago by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prevent medical institutions from limiting visitation. The caveat to that, according to Lyons, is that visitation may be restricted if any staff members or residents within the long-term care unit test positive for the virus.

At this time, though, no changes are anticipated.

The national impact of the Omicron variant has been swift and substantial, leading to by far the highest number of daily new cases since the pandemic began. National tracking data from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine reports a new record high was set on January 10 of 1,364,418 new cases in a single day.

According to Johns Hopkins, between January 10 and 16 more than 5.4 million cases were recorded and just over 12,500 deaths. This, however, represents a current average of around half the number of deaths recorded at the same time last year; the record high for deaths was 4442 on January 20, 2021, compared to 2641 on January 12, 2022.

Though Wyoming has often lagged behind the rest of the nation in terms of peak infection levels, Teton County topped the New York Times chart of cases per 100,000 residents on Wednesday with 658 per 100,000 residents. This was a 313% increase across the previous 14 days.

Early data is still suggesting that Omicron generally causes milder illness than its predecessors, though medical organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) say more data is needed to confirm this.