CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming is still seeing over 10x the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the state compared with the summer and early fall before the surge began.
But the number of COVID-19 patients dipped below 220 for the first time in about two weeks on Thursday, according to the Wyoming Department of Health’s data.
The number of COVID patients in Wyoming hospitals can move up and down from day to day but generally trended upward since mid-September when there were around 15 patients through Nov. 30 when the state saw a record 247 COVID-19 patients hospitalized.
So far in December, hospitals overall have seen less COVID patients each day since the peak on Nov. 30.
COVID-19 is still impacted the state. The WDH announced 27 additional COVID-related deaths among Wyoming residents on Thursday, including nine from Natrona County. Over 200 of the total 257 COVID-related deaths among Wyoming residents have been announced since Sept. 13, which was around the time the state started to see a surge in COVID cases.
Wyoming has still been adding hundreds more cases per day since before the surge began. However, the average number of new confirmed cases reported per day has been declining to some degree. That can be seen by comparing average number of confirmed COVID cases over the last one, two and three week periods. As of Dec. 2, the WDH reported those averages as follows:
- Last 21 days: Wyoming added an average of 588.1 new confirmed cases each day
- Last 14 days: Wyoming added an average of 554.4 new confirmed cases each day
- Last 7 days: Wyoming added an average of 437 new confirmed cases each day
Individual hospitals are still seeing a higher number of COVID patients than they have throughout most of the pandemic. The Wyoming Medical Center had the highest number of COVID-19 patients on Thursday at 56, followed by the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center at 55.
The highest number of COVID-19 patients the WMC has seen in a single day was 75 on Nov. 25, according to the WDH data.
Hospitals across the state continue to see their intensive care unit bed capacity taxed amid the pandemic. Three hospitals had all their ICU beds filled on Thursday by COVID or other patients and four had only one ICU bed open.
28 of an available 232 ventilators across the state were in use on Thursday, according to the WDH data. Ventilators are sometimes used to treat COVID patients.
Hospitals across the country continue to struggle to find hospital staff such as nurses to help deal with high numbers of COVID-19 patients, according to the Associated Press. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s office announced a three-pronged approach on Nov. 19 to help provide additional resources to hospitals in the state as they struggle amid the COVID-19 surge.
Since hospitals self-report data to the WDH, State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist has said that the WDH data about hospital resources and COVID-19 hospitalizations is best used to track trends in overall COVID hospitalizations or resource availability.
Harrist has said that the data should be considered an approximation of the exact numbers since hospitals self-report the data and the actual statewide numbers could vary slightly.
The Wyoming Department of Health provide data about the number of COVID patients in specific hospitals in the state, but caution that the data is self-reported by hospitals and that “non-general acute hospitals (e.g., rehabilitation hospitals) may report COVID-19 hospitalizations but these data do not always reflect statewide capacity issues.”
Further data from the WDH is available below:
