Schools can reopen in May to limited instruction and school districts will be required to submit proposals for reopening schools no matter when they plan to do so, Wyoming Department of Education Superintendent Jillian Balow said Thursday afternoon during a news conference. Despite that message, some districts have begun announcing they’ll remain closed for the remainder of the school year. (Micheal Pearlman/office of Gov. Mark Gordon)

As of 10 a.m., April 28, 2020 

  1. Wyoming: Confirmed cases of COVID-19: 389. Deaths: 7 — Recovered: 343. Probable, untested cases: 131. 
  2. By county: Fremont County leads the state with 98 confirmed cases, followed by Laramie with 89, Teton with 64, Natrona with 39 and Campbell with 14. Two counties, Platte and Weston, have reported no cases. 
  3. Testing: 8,615 tests have been administered and processed, according to the Wyoming Department of Health. Fremont County health officials recently expanded testing and contact tracing there, which they say likely accounts for the county’s spike in confirmed cases. 
  4. United States: 989,357 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Institute. Total deaths: 56,256 — Total recoveries: 111,587.
  5. The latest: On Monday, Natrona County School District became the latest Wyoming district to announce its schools will remain closed for the semester, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. As the state’s confirmed cases continue to rise, districts in Laramie, Albany, Campbell and Fremont counties have also indicated their schools will remain shuttered, relying instead on adaptive learning for the balance of the school year. State lawmakers have begun to draft measures for consideration during a special session that would pave the way for the state to respond to the outbreak. The Legislature’s Management Council is expected to vote when it meets Friday on which bills to consider during the special session. The special session could take place as early as May.
  6. More news: Wyoming is among the states best positioned to reopen, according to a new report published by the financial services firm Raymond James & Associates. The University of Wyoming, which is preparing to cut its budget amid plummeting state revenues, will receive $6.6 million from the federal government’s relief efforts, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

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  1. Why does Wyoming not test the “probable” cases? Is that so the “official cases” of Covid-19 stays artificially low? I have not seen this done by other States.

    Reply

    1. “Why does Wyoming not test the “probable” cases?

      Not everyone wants to be tested. The test kits were in short supply. Should the state force people to get tested? No reason to test everybody if they have symptoms but no other serious complications – self quarantine is prescription. A person can volunteer to get tested if they want results from a test, and can find & afford a test. That would be reported to the state as a confirmed case if the outcome was positive.

      I doubt the state is saying that there is any relationship to the number of “probable cases” and the total number of people who are, or have been, infected with COVID-19.

      “From Wyoming Dept of Health: Probable Cases include a total count of people who are identified to be a close contact to a laboratory confirmed COVID-19 case AND develop symptoms of COVID-19 within 14 days, but are not tested. This count includes probable cases that have recovered.”

      So the better question is why even report the number of probable cases (currently 140)?

      It is more likely that Wyoming has thousands of cases if it is transmitted more easily than the flu which has an average infection rate of 5 to 20 percent per year in the population of the USA.

      Let’s pretend that there is a 1% infection rate for COVID-19 in Wyoming. That would amount to over 5,800 cases. If the death rate from COVID-19 is 0.1%, Wyoming can expect 5.8 deaths. Currently we have 7.

      As of now, Wyoming has 396 confirmed cases out of nearly 580,000 Wyoming residents.

      Reply