Three new Coronavirus cases in HSC

Three Hot Springs County residents have tested positive for Coronavirus over this last weekend. At least one dozen more people have undergone testing as of Monday, May 18. Results are pending.

Ongoing tracing of multiple contacts is underway. If others test positive the contact tracing will include more people. With this ongoing contact tracing we will be seeing more people in home isolation and quarantine.

As of Tuesday afternoon, HSC has a total of four positive cases, three probable cases along with three recovered.

Several cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed among residents and staff of a long-term care facility in Washakie County, according to the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH).

On Sunday, officials had identified five cases among staff members and four among residents of Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. Lab testing at the Wyoming Public Health Laboratory confirmed most of the known cases, with more results pending.

On Tuesday, six new coronavirus cases in five counties brought the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 583.

The Wyoming Department of Health said two of the new cases were in Natrona County, where officials said four cases have been diagnosed in among Wyoming Medical Center employees.

Two of the Medical Center employees tested positive for coronavirus last week, prompting center officials to test all staff who had close contact with them. The result was two more diagnosed cases on Monday.

“The initial investigation showed that two employees diagnosed earlier in the week were traced together, so Wyoming Medical Center made the decision to test all staff who had close contact with the two positive employees over the weekend,” the hospital said in a statement.

The employees are self-quarantining.

Meanwhile, the number of Wyoming deaths linked to the coronavirus increased to 10 on Monday with reports of two state residents in Colorado.

One patient, an older man from Laramie County, died in March, while the other, an older female from Carbon County, died in April.

Although neither patient had been counted in Wyoming’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases, the deaths are attached to Wyoming because they were permanent residents of the state, said Guy Beaudoin, deputy state registrar with the Department of Health.

“When Wyoming residents pass away in another state from a disease such as COVID-19, it is a widely accepted practice to track those deaths based on the location of the person’s permanent residence,” he said.

The Department of Health said in addition to the two new cases in Natrona County, cases were confirmed in Carbon, Fremont and Laramie counties on Tuesday.

As off Tuesday afternoon, Fremont County had 204 cases; Laramie County had 121; Teton County had 69; Natrona County had 51; Campbell and Sweetwater counties had 16; Converse had 14; Washakie had 13; Johnson and Sheridan counties had 12; Lincoln had 11; Albany had 10; Carbon and Uinta had eight; Crook had five; Goshen and Hot Springs had four, and Big Horn had two. Niobrara, Park and Sublette counties all had one case.

The number of recoveries seen since coronavirus was first detected in Wyoming in March increased by 24 on Tuesday to stand at 528, 388 among patients with confirmed cases and 140 among those with probable cases.

A probable case is defined as one where the patient has coronavirus symptoms and has been in contact with someone with a confirmed case, but has not been tested for the illness. As of Tuesday, the Health Department said there were 193 such cases.

The Health Department’s figures indicate there are 240 active cases of coronavirus around the state — 187 among those with confirmed cases and 53 among those with probable cases.

The number of active cases is determined by adding the confirmed and probable cases — 766 — subtracting the total number of recoveries and subtracting the number of deaths.