CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Health reported an additional 300 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state during its 3 p.m. Wednesday, October 13 update.
The new cases reported Wednesday brought the total number of confirmed cases in Wyoming to 77,380 since the pandemic began. The number of new probable cases rose by 139, bringing the total to 18,679.
There are 2,486 active confirmed cases in Wyoming, 263 more than on Tuesday. Wyoming has been adding an average of 298.4 new confirmed cases per day over the past 14 days.
Natrona County added 31 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 8,727. Natrona County saw 39 new probable cases reported, bringing the total to 4,860.
The WDH has also begun to report COVID-19 data in conjunction with people’s vaccination status. The new dashboard only includes data for cases dating back to May 1.
39 additional breakthrough cases (cases among people not fully vaccinated) were added on Wednesday, bringing the total since May 1 to 592 breakthrough cases. That is out of a total of 31,508 total confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported since May 1. 98% of cases in Wyoming have been among people not fully vaccinated.
No additional COVID-19-related deaths were reported Wednesday. 39 additional COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Tuesday.
1,080 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.
Since the WDH started tracking this data, nine of these deaths have been among people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while 98% have been among the unvaccinated or those not fully vaccinated.
Hospitalization data had not been updated as of 3 p.m. Wdnesday. COVID-19 hospitalizations ticked down to 222 on Tuesday, down from 223 on Monday, 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 have been 24 fully vaccinated people who were hospitalized after contracting COVID-19 since May 1. That is out of 877 total hospitalizations during that time span.
There were 52 COVID-19 patients at the Wyoming Medical Center on Tuesday and 39 at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. There were zero ICU beds available at the WMC and seven at the CRMC.
Five hospitals, counting the WMC, had zero available ICU beds available and three 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.
The number of COVID-19 cases identified as variant cases stands at 4,241. 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 74,023 people have recovered from a lab confirmed case and 17,391 have recovered from a probable case since the pandemic began.
“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: 5,178 (857)
- Big Horn: 1,563 (379)
- Campbell: 7,411 (838)
- Carbon: 2,257 (298)
- Converse: 831 (1,219)
- Crook: 674 (160)
- Fremont: 6,899 (1,209)
- Goshen: 1,888 (176)
- Hot Springs: 622 (221)
- Johnson: 745 (390)
- Laramie: 11,734 (3,307)
- Lincoln: 2,069 (490)
- Natrona: 8,727 (4,860)
- Niobrara: 150 (192)
- Park: 4,300 (441)
- Platte: 884 (386)
- Sheridan: 3,813 (1,127)
- Sublette: 1,059 (246)
- Sweetwater: 6,607 (603)
- Teton: 4,898 (120)
- Uinta: 3,203 (499)
- Washakie: 1,144 (415)
- Weston: 724 (246)
