This image from a Fremont County PSA illustrates how masks can reduce risk of COVID-19 infection. (Screengrab/Fremont County Incident Management Team)

As of 10 a.m., April 23, 2020 

  1. Wyoming: Confirmed cases of COVID-19: 326. Deaths: 7 — Recovered: 275. Probable, untested cases: 121. 
  2. By county: Laramie County leads the state with 78 confirmed cases, followed by Teton with 63, Fremont with 51, Natrona with 38 and Campbell with 14. Two counties, Platte and Weston, have reported no cases. 
  3. Testing: 7,511 tests have been administered and processed, according to the Wyoming Department of Health. Experts and officials agree positive test numbers fall well short of the reality of the disease’s spread.
  4. United States: 842,624 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Institute. Total deaths: 46,785 — Total recoveries: 76,682.
  5. The latest: The Wyoming Department of Health reported that a COVID-19-positive Teton County man has died. The older patient was hospitalized in another state and suffered from high-risk conditions. No new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have surfaced since a staff member at the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, the state’s women’s prison, tested positive, a prison spokesperson said Tuesday. The agency announced on April 10 that a staff member had tested positive for the disease. Rural hospitals are facing financial ruin if they can’t restart elective procedures soon, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reports, quoting St. John’s Health CEO Dr. Paul Beaupre. “By not doing elective procedures, at St. John’s we are currently losing about $6 million per month,” he said. “If nothing changes within the next eight to nine months, St. John’s will be fiscally insolvent.”
  6. More news: In the wake of four COVID-related deaths in one day this week, Fremont County officials said they are learning more about the nature and severity of the virus. “What is learned is this is a difficult illness, and it keeps people quite ill for long periods of time,” Fremont County Health Officer Dr. Brian Gee said in a Wednesday press conference. “A couple of these patients had been cared for at an intensive-level care for three, four, five weeks. And unfortunately, even when people are improving as one had, there are still complications that can happen in that third and fourth week of illness.” Gee also said the virus “infected some of those who died yesterday even before we knew we had a case in the county.” Despite around-the-clock work being done by community leaders and many thoughtful decisions, Gee said, “illness and death have occurred.” He urged care in moving forward. “I believe this should be a slow and narrow opening if any to start with,” Gee said. “We really need increased compliance with mask use.”

Leave a comment

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for: 

  • Your real name — first and last. 
  • Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
  • The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
  • Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
  • Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
  • No more than three comments per story, including replies. 

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

  • Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
  • Comments that are not directly relevant to the article. 
  • Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
  • Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
  • Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know: 

  • Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement. 
  • We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
  • We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance. 
  • Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
  • We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you. 

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *