CASPER, Wyo. — The University of Wyoming said on Monday, Aug. 17 that there are 38 active cases of COVID-19 among their students and staff. 32 new cases have been identified.
Two of the new active cases involve students who had been living in UW’s residence halls. UW says those students have been moved to isolation housing. Eight people who had close contact with those two students in the residence halls are “in quarantine housing for 14 days.”
“Close contact is defined by the Wyoming Department of Health as being within 6 feet for more than 10 minutes,” UW adds.
The other 36 active cases are among students and staff living off campus, who are isolating at home, according to UW. That includes 30 people with positive cases which were identified over the weekend based on saliva tests they were asked to take before returning to campus. UW says a third party company called Vault Health is testing those samples.
“Reporting from pre-return Vault Health tests showed 30 new positive cases over the weekend, as a total of 8,260 tests have been processed by Vault,” UW says.
UW says the 30 new case from the Vault Health Testing plus the two new cases from the students who had been living in residence halls include:
- the 2 students who had been living in the residence halls
- 9 students living off-campus in Laramie who had “no presence on campus”
- 6 students self-isolating in: Casper, Riverton, Sheridan, Colorado, New Jersey and South Dakota
- 6 UW employees
- 4 “‘past positives’ who have recovered”
- 5 are individuals UW is attempting to contact
“The total of UW-related COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began is 50; 12 of the individuals have recovered,” UW says. “A COVID-19 dashboard may be found at www.uwyo.edu/campus-return. It will be updated with the new numbers today and regularly during the fall semester.”
“In Albany County, 85 total cases have been reported as of Aug. 16.”
This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.
The Wyoming Department of Health provides COVID-19 case, variant, death, testing, hospital and vaccine data online. The department also shares information about how the data can be interpreted. COVID-19 safety recommendations are available from the CDC.
