CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Health reported an additional 475 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state during its 3 p.m. Thursday, October 7 update.
The new cases reported Thursday brought the total number of confirmed cases in Wyoming to 75,740 since the pandemic began. The number of new probable cases rose by 206, bringing the total to 18,024.
There are 2,711 active confirmed cases in Wyoming, 34 more than on Wednesday. Wyoming has been adding an average of 330.7 new confirmed cases per day over the past 14 days.
Natrona County added 100 new confirmed cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 8,519. Natrona County saw 77 new probable cases reported, bringing the total to 4,648.
Hospitalizations spiked to 217 on Thursday, up from 201 on Wednesday, according to the WDH. The most recent peak in hospitalizations occurred on September 8, when there were 233 COVID-19 patients in Wyoming hospitals.
There were 52 COVID-19 patients at the Wyoming Medical Center on Thursday and 38 at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. There were zero ICU beds available at the WMC and three at the CRMC.
Seven hospitals had zero available ICU beds available and four had only one ICU bed available. While ICU beds are not exclusively used to treat COVID-19 patients, when hospitals deal with surges in these patients, that can put a strain on their ability to care for other types of critical-needs patients.
No additional COVID-19-related deaths were reported Wednesday. 45 additional COVID-19-related deaths were reported Tuesday, pushing Wyoming past 1,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. 1,041 Wyoming residents have reportedly died after contracting COVID-19 since the pandemic began. These are deaths that have COVID-19 listed as either the underlying or primary cause of death or as a contributing cause of death, the WDH explains.
The number of COVID-19 cases identified as variant cases stands at 3,810. Variant cases involve a mutated form of the virus and some may spread more easily or result in more serious illness.
The WDH says its variant dashboard may underestimate the number of variant cases in Wyoming: “Not all positive tests are sequenced to identify which variation of COVID-19 caused illness.”
The WDH says 72,185 lab confirmed cases have recovered, and 16,722 probable cases have recovered since the start of the pandemic.
“A lab confirmed or probable case is defined as recovered when there is resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and there is improvement in respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, shortness of breath) for 24 hours AND at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared,” the WDH says. “Cases with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who have not had any symptoms are considered recovered when at least 10 days have passed since the date of their first positive test and have had no subsequent illness provided they remain asymptomatic.”
WDH Public Information Officer Kim Deti explained that the department marks people as recovered once their isolation order date has expired. People who test positive are asked to remain in isolation until 10 days after their first symptoms, 10 days after their test was taken, or longer if they are still showing symptoms.
If people need to be isolated longer than their initial isolation period, they can contact the WDH, who can extend their isolation order. Deti said that in some cases, contact tracing informs whether a case is considered recovered while in others, the department counts someone as recovered after their isolation period ends.
County-specific COVID-19 information is available from the Wyoming Department of Health. Confirmed cases by county are as follows (probable cases in parentheses):
- Albany: 5,089 (832)
- Big Horn: 1,507 (369)
- Campbell: 7,229 (822)
- Carbon: 2,203 (295)
- Converse: 806 (1,190)
- Crook: 661 (144)
- Fremont: 6,736 (1,180)
- Goshen: 1,778 (152)
- Hot Springs: 614 (221)
- Johnson: 730 (383)
- Laramie: 11,578 (3,242)
- Lincoln: 2,023 (474)
- Natrona: 8,519 (4,648)
- Niobrara: 149 (177)
- Park: 4,193 (392)
- Platte: 856 (370)
- Sheridan: 3,722 (1,098)
- Sublette: 1,037 (223)
- Sweetwater: 6,512 (581)
- Teton: 4,853 (120)
- Uinta: 3,149 (493)
- Washakie: 1,087 (383)
- Weston: 709 (235)
