NCSD Sees COVID-19 Cases Decrease, While County Cases are Steady

Based on bi-weekly data from the Natrona County School District (NCSD), COVID-19 cases and quarantines have decreased among students and staff between Oct. 9 and 22.

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During that two week time period, the district reported 75 cases of COVID-19 among students and 27 among staff, which is a decrease compared to the 156 cases among students and 32 among staff that the district reported from Sept. 25 to Oct. 8.

There was also a decrease among quarantines, with 306 students and 10 staff having to quarantine, a decrease from the previous two weeks, which saw 393 students and 28 staff quarantining.

Cases at Kelly Walsh High School, which had the most from Sept. 25 to Oct. 8 at 56, has now reported only eight cases, with Natrona County High School, which previously had 26 cases, reported 25 cases over the past two weeks.

It is unclear however what has happened to the previously reported cases, as Tanya Southerland, director of public relations for the NCSD, has said that they are unsure of whether certain cases are still active after two weeks, while Hailey Bloom, public information officer for the Casper-Natrona County Health Department, has said that there is not enough staff to be able to track cases that may have come from the school district.

In spite of the lower cases in the NCSD, cases in the county continue to remain steady, with cases in Natrona County fluctuating from 153 cases on Oct. 11, down to 59 cases on Oct. 15, up to 181 cases on Oct. 18, and down to 75 cases on Oct. 22, the same amount of cases as on Sept. 19.

This also differs from the amount of COVID-19 patients that hospitals in Wyoming have been seeing, with data from the Wyoming Department of Health showing that on Oct. 22 there were 248 COVID-19 patients in Wyoming hospitals, the most at any point during the pandemic since Oct. 21, when there were 249.

Natrona County in particular has seen the greatest number of COVID-19 patients, with the Wyoming Medical Center reporting the greatest number of COVID-19 patients, 67, of any hospital in the state.

The Wyoming Medical Center also reported on Oct. 22 that they had no ICU beds available out of 20, and that they only have seven vents available out of their 24 total.

Since the start of Oct., Wyoming's vaccination rate has increased slightly, going from 48.5% with at least one dose on Oct. 1 to 50.3% on Oct. 24.

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