COVID-19 cases drop in Wyoming in 2023
by Pinedale Online!
March 11, 2023
Cases of COVID-19 have dropped significantly across Wyoming in 2023, the 4th year of the pandemic. The Wyoming Department of Health reports 2,256 lab-confirmed and probable cases through March 7, 2023 and 28 deaths in the state attributed to the virus. Wyoming hospitals report 19 people still in the hospital with COVID-19 across the state as of March 7th. St. Johns Medical Center in Jackson had one COVID-19 patient as of March 7th.
Sublette County has had 16 total lab-confirmed and probable cases over the 2-1/2 months into the year and zero deaths in 2023. Neighboring county to the north, Teton County, has had 101 total lab-confirmed and probable cases and zero deaths. Sweetwater County to the south of Sublette County has had 73 lab-confirmed and probable cases and 2 deaths in 2023 as of March 7.
The COVID-19 virus is believed to have begun as early as December 2019, with cases starting to rise in the US in mid-January 2020. Data recording on the Wyoming Department of Health website began on February 11, 2020. The first case in Wyoming was reported on March 11, 2020 in a woman in Sheridan County who had recently traveled domestically. National health concerns grew very quickly. On March 20, 2020, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon closed all public schools in the state through April 3rd (they remained closed until May 15th). On March 24, Yellowstone National Park closed to visitors. On April 13, 2020, Wyoming became the last state in the U.S. to report its first death from COVID-19. On December 9, 2020, Wyoming issued an indoor mask mandate. Restrictions on group gathering size, social distancing, and business operations followed and the mask mandate continued during 2020 into early 2021, and ended on March 16, 2021.
There appear to have been three waves of the virus over the past three years in Wyoming. The first wave with a lot of cases was October/November 2020 with the peak in mid-November 2020 with 940 cases reported in the state. The first vaccines were administered in Wyoming in mid-December 2020. Things settled down for many months, then another smaller wave of cases returned in August/September/October 2021 with peak cases of 603 on September 20, 2021. After a short lull, a huge one-month spike in cases hit in January 2022 with the peak on January 24 with 1839 cases in Wyoming, the most cases per day during the entire pandemic. The three waves were generally attributed chronologically to the alpha, beta, and omicron variants of the virus, although other variants were noted in testing results. Another three months went by in early 2022 with minimal activity, then another small wave hit Wyoming in the summer, June/July/August 2022, with the peak on July 5th with 407 confirmed COVID-19 cases. September through December 2022 had a steady low-level number of cases across the state. In all of 2023, the 4th year of the pandemic, new case reporting in the state has been in the 10-45/day range.
Over the course of the three-years-plus of the pandemic, there have been 2,004 deaths in Wyoming attributed to the virus. As of the time of this article, the last death in Wyoming was reported on February 26, 2023. No one age 18 or under has reportedly died from COVID-19 in the state. The Wyoming Department of Health reports that 80% of COVID-19 related deaths in Wyoming were in people age 60 and older, many of whom already had health conditions known to put people at higher risk of severe illness.
The Johns Hopkins website, which has provided daily national and world-wide COVID-19 tracking information for three years, stopped collecting data as of March 10, 2023. They reported 103.8 million cases in the US over the course of the pandemic and 1.1 million deaths. They report nation-wide 81.82% of the country’s population have received at least 1 vaccine dose.
Sublette County has had 16 COVID-19 cases so far in 2023, with 54 interspersed days January-March 9th with no cases reported; 8 of the 16 cases in Sublette County were recorded between February 1 to March 9th. As of February 23, 2023, 39% of Sublette County's entire population has been fully vaccinated, and 44.7% has received at least one dose, according to numbers released by the CDC, and compared to 56.3% vaccination rate for the state. Sublette County Public Health is still offering weekly COVID vaccine clinics for ages 6+ months. Walk-ins are welcome on their scheduled clinic days or by calling 307-367-2157 to schedule an appointment. Primary series of Moderna (ages 6+ months – adults), Moderna & Pfizer Bivalent Boosters, and Novavax (18+) are offered at their weekly clinics. Sublette County Public Health has a banner on their official COVID-19 website, www.sublettewycovid.com, that the webpage is no longer being maintained and in a month, on April 9, 2023, the site will not be active. There are currently no restrictions related to COVID-19 in Wyoming.
Nationally, as of March 2023, non-U.S. citizen, non-U.S. immigrants must show proof of being fully vaccinated with the primary series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine before boarding their flights to enter the United States. Only limited exceptions apply. Out-of-country travelers are still recommended to get and have proof of COVID-19 vaccines and a negative COVID-19 test result, according to the CDC website, and rules vary for travel to other foreign countries.
On Jan. 30, 2023, the Biden Administration announced its intent to end the COVID-19 pandemic national emergency and public health emergency declarations on May 11, 2023. These federal emergency declarations have been in place since early 2020.
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