Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884

Pandemic continues to improve across Wyoming

An important milestone this week offered further evidence that Wyoming may have passed the worst of its winter wave of COVID-19. For the first time since the end of September, active cases fell below 1000 on Saturday.

The decline has been ongoing since the end of last year as the number of people recovering from the novel coronavirus began to outpace the number of new infections. This week’s milestone represents a precipitous drop from the all-time high of 11,861 active cases, which was recorded near the end of November.

This positive statistic is supported by a continued decline in hospitalizations across Wyoming. The 32 people who were reported to be in hospital due to COVID-19 on February 9 is a sizeable reduction from the total on November 30, when 247 people were hospitalized as the infection wave hit its peak.

On February 7, Crook County Memorial Hospital discharged its sole COVID-19 patient and returned to reporting no virus-positive cases within the facility.

The overall state statistics have seen more peaks and troughs than usual this week due to a review of all reports of confirmed and probable cases. This occurs periodically and leads to a recalibration of the numbers.

On Sunday, for instance, the number of confirmed cases in Wyoming actually declined by 36. A total of 11 counties saw their numbers fall by varying amounts, from a decrease of 16 in Laramie County to a fall of just one in Lincoln and Sweetwater Counties.

The number of new cases added to Wyoming’s tally meanwhile varied considerably day by day. While Thursday saw an increase of 250 confirmed infections, on Saturday there were just 22.

Crook County has seen very low numbers of new cases this week, totaling just three new confirmed infections across the week and no new probable cases.

However, another death was recorded for this county on Tuesday; an older man who died last month and is reported to have been a resident of a local long-term care facility. He was among 23 new deaths recorded for this week, bringing the overall total to 647.

Wyoming’s total number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic reached this area passed 45,000 on Monday, with 624 recorded deaths due to the virus.

Vaccinations

All counties are now working through Phase 1b of the state’s vaccine distribution plan, including Crook County. Phase 1a saw healthcare workers, long-term care staff and residents and law enforcement receive their doses.

Phase 1b is concentrating on people aged 65 or above, some frontline essential workers and people with specific medical conditions (such as cancer, chronic kidney disease, diabetes and more). It also includes people on the Wyoming Medicated Community Choices Waiver and Development Disabilities waivers and caregivers of medically vulnerable people who cannot get vaccinated.

Once this phase is complete, the county will move on to Phase 1c, which includes the homeless, those who live in group settings (including college dormitories and prisons) and critical infrastructure workers. This is expected to be followed by the second phase, which will be more open to the general public.

As of Monday, the Wyoming Department of Health reported that 65,850 first vaccine doses had been received and 58,636 of them had been administered to Wyoming residents. A total of 36,100 second doses have been received and 17,306 administered.

As of Monday, Crook County Public Health has administered 741 first and 29 second doses of the Moderna vaccine (in addition to the 60 first and 20 second doses administered directly by Crook County Medical Services District to its staff and residents). To be placed on the waiting list, call 283-1142.

Variants

The news is good for the pandemic as a whole, but it’s not yet time to relax. The three new “variants of concern” of COVID-19 are continuing to pop up across the nation and all appear to have the potential to spread more quickly and easily through the population.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are now 690 reported cases of the UK Variant in America across 33 states. The hardest hit states are Florida and California, while just five cases have been recorded so far in Wyoming and several surrounding states have yet to see evidence of the new variants.

Just three cases of the Brazil Variant have been reported in Minnesota and Oklahoma, while the South Africa Variant has been recorded six times and is now known to be present in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina.

Virus variants are both natural and expected because viruses constantly change through mutation. These mutations are random and not always beneficial to the virus.

However, if a mutation is positive for the virus (such as by making it easier for virus cells to jump from person to person), it tends to stick around precisely because the virus cells carrying that mutation will do a little better than the cells that don’t. This will lead to a new variant of the virus.

Thousands of variants appear over time for any virus, but only some rise to the level of causing concern. The three that are currently being monitored are of note due to being more transmissible, but a variant will also attract attention if it is more lethal or the vaccines in circulation do not work against it.

The CDC reports that scientists are currently working to understand how easily the three new variants of concern spread, whether they can cause more severe illness and whether the currently authorized vaccines will be able to protect against them.

 
 
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