Deaths
Data from Wyoming Department
of Health
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2020 Sublette COVID-19 wrap-up
by Pinedale Online!
January 2, 2021
Sublette County ended the 2020 coronavirus pandemic year with a total of 597 cases, of which 576 were considered recovered and 13 people were still considered active. The first case of COVID-19 was reported on April 17, 2020. The second case came two months later on June 18th. Cases were reported mostly in the under ten range until mid-November when it spiked to the teens and 20s per day until mid-December, when numbers dropped back down. The first death was reported on August 21st, however this person had been living out-of-state in a long-term care facility and contracted the disease there. The county-wide mask order went into effect on November 16th.
There were a total of five deaths attributed to the county COVID-19 in 2020, but of those two were not living in the state when they died. State health officials attribute deaths to the county and state of residence, not the location the person was living at the time of their death. The number of new positive cases recorded for each week significantly declined in December 2020 compared to November 2020, both in Sublette County and across the state of Wyoming.
For a county with approximately 8,000 residents, Sublette County had a death rate of .06% due to the virus over the past year. Random surveillance saliva sampling via free testing offered by the county of 87 people during the last two weeks in December all come back negative, showing 0% cases of asymptomatic positive cases. There was an average of 5 cases per day of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in the county during December 2020. Of those who tested positive, there was a 99% recovery rate in Sublette County. Many of the people who had symptoms of something and were tested, did not test positive for COVID-19 – meaning they had something else (colds, other flu, allergies, etc).
According to Public Health Officer Dr. Brandon Fitzsimmons, antibody testing over the past 5-6 months indicates that from 18-30% of the Sublette County population appears to have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the percentage of people who need to be immune in order to achieve "herd immunity" varies with each disease. The fraction of the population that must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to begin inducing herd immunity is not known. For example, herd immunity against measles requires about 95% of a population to be vaccinated. The remaining 5% will be protected by the fact that measles will not spread among those who are vaccinated. For polio, the threshold is about 80%.
The new COVID-19 vaccines are becoming available across the nation and Sublette County has started working through their vaccination priority criteria. The vulnerable elderly, health care providers, and emergency services personnel are the first to be vaccinated. Public health officials will release more information on when the vaccine is available to the general public and how to schedule an appointment. The vaccine being distributed locally requires two shots, 28 days apart.
The State and Sublette County mask mandates are in effect until January 8th. No information has been released to date on what the numbers need to look like for health officials to be comfortable lifting the mask mandates. Factors being considered are not just local positivity rates, but also capacity at regional hospitals and strain on the regional area health care systems to accept critically ill patients.
Click on this link for more statewide COVID-19 information from the Wyoming Department of Health: https://health.wyo.gov/
Click on this link for more information specific to Sublette County regarding COVID-19: www.sublettewycovid.com Sublette COVID-19 Task Group
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