First HS County resident tests positive for virus

A Hot Springs County resident has tested positive for COVID-19. According to information released by the HSC Incident Management Team, the individual is following isolation requirements per the Wyoming Department of Health. The contact investigation has been completed. If you were not notified, you are not considered to have had direct contact with the individual. No further information was available about the case.

As of Tuesday morning, 26 tests had been performed in Hot Springs County with 1 positive HSC resident, 1 positive Washakie County resident, 20 negative, 3 pending and 22 individuals on home isolation.

Wyoming recorded its first death attributed to the coronavirus on Monday.

Gov. Mark Gordon and Sean McCallister, chief executive officer for the Johnson County Healthcare Center, both confirmed that the person who died was an older man from Johnson County who had underlying health conditions that put him at a higher risk for complications from coronavirus.

McCallister said the man had been hospitalized for one day before his death.

“While we’ve learned most people who are infected are able to recover at home without medical care, we also know people who are aged 65 and older and people who have medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes and weak immune systems are more likely to experience complications and become severely ill,” said Dr. Alexia Harrist, the state’s health officer.

Dr. Nick Stamato, chief of medical staff for Campbell County Health in Gillette, said most of the computer models for the spread of COVID-19 show a surge in cases in the last week of April, with the number cases in the state peaking in the first or second week of May.

In Fremont County, which has the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, Dr. Brian Gee, the county’s health officer, warned that even after the number of new cases begins to decline, the public emergency will not be over.

“The peak has to come down,” he said. “We’re going to have to maintain these physical distancing tools we’ve been doing … onward into the spring and into the summer.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, coronavirus case counts were at 282 in the state. The number of patients who had fully recovered increased to 164.