CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) reported 647 new lab confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state during their 3 pm Friday, Dec. 18 update.
Wyoming has been adding an average of 304.6 new confirmed cases per day over the last seven days.
There have now been 35,760 total confirmed COVID cases in Wyoming since the start of the pandemic. 119 additional probable cases were also reported Friday, bringing the total to 5,599.
The WDH reported 23 additional COVID related deaths among the state’s residents on Thursday, including 11 from Natrona County. That brought the total since the start of the pandemic to 351, including the deaths of 74 Natrona County residents.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Wyoming continued to decline on Friday, dropping to 157. That is down from the peak of 247 COVID patients in Wyoming hospitals seen on Nov. 30.
As of Friday morning, Wyoming’s effective reproduction rate of the virus stood at 0.84, according to Rt.live, the lowest of any state in the nation. This number reflects the average number of new cases each case is expected to create. Anytime the effective reproduction rate is above 1.0, COVID-19 is expected to spread quickly.
492 new recoveries from lab confirmed cases were reported statewide on Friday, bringing the total to 33,469. An additional 99 probable case recoveries were also reported for a total of 5,075.
“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 since their first symptoms or 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 covered after their isolation period concludes.
County-specific COVID-19 information is available from the Wyoming Department of Health. Total lab confirmed cases in each county (with probable cases in parentheses) are as follows:
- Albany: 3,088 (280)
- Big Horn: 591 (79)
- Campbell: 3,572 (328)
- Carbon: 814 (68)
- Converse: 445 (302)
- Crook: 346 (25)
- Fremont: 3,343 (467)
- Goshen: 855 (76)
- Hot Springs: 183 (22)
- Johnson: 298 (135)
- Laramie: 5,689 (940)
- Lincoln: 730 (87)
- Natrona: 4,831 (1,290)
- Niobrara: 60 (77)
- Park: 1,633 (129)
- Platte: 270 (136)
- Sheridan: 1,989 (401)
- Sublette: 460 (102)
- Sweetwater: 2,560 (136)
- Teton: 1,934 (56)
- Uinta: 1,164 (235)
- Washakie: 539 (151)
- Weston: 366 (77)
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.
