COVID-19 still cropping up in county

Wyoming remains in the red in terms of community transmission levels of COVID-19, said Micki Lyons, CEO of Crook County Medical Services District, last week.

For this reason, she said, “We’re still using the same pattern of testing in long-term care.” This involves regular testing of staff and residents within the unit.

On the plus side, she said, “We don’t have any positive in-patients right now.” State statistics indicate that CCMSD has not admitted any serious COVID-19 cases since at least the end of June.

Last week’s statistics also showed that Crook County had seven known active cases, out of 441 lab-confirmed cases statewide. The slight uptick in recent cases appears to be driven by the most recent variant, Omicron BA.5, which is currently listed as a variant of concern by the Centers for Disease Control.

According to Yale Medicine, this is believed to be the most contagious subvariant so far and could be causing more than 50% of new cases nationwide.

“With this particular variant, the typical symptoms are headache, fever, sore throat,” said Lyons.

Speaking to the need for new boosters, she told the CCMSD Board of Trustees that, “Currently they are actually working on variant-specific booster vaccines, and so right now the recommendation is still the two-series with one booster and then a second booster for anyone over the age of 50.”

Trustee Sandy Neiman asked if monkeypox is likely to be added to the list of vaccines needed in this area. Not at this time, said Lyons.

Trustee Trish Habeck chimed in to share her knowledge that monkeypox has not been detected in this state.

“The State of Wyoming only received 42 vaccines,” she said, explaining that the monkeypox vaccine requires two doses, so this only represents 21 sets. The bulk of vaccines have been sent to more populated parts of the country, such as New York City, where cases have already appeared.