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After rising earlier this month, the number of people actively infected with COVID-19 in Park County dropped over the past week, but hospitalizations for the disease rose again.
As of Wednesday, …
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After rising earlier this month, the number of people actively infected with COVID-19 in Park County dropped over the past week, but hospitalizations for the disease rose again.
As of Wednesday, the Wyoming Department of Health reported 73 people in the county had active confirmed or probable cases of COVID. That was down from 86 cases the prior week, though still up from levels seen earlier in the month.
Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Park County had sunk to as few as four patients on Dec. 8, but on Wednesday, there were 12 patients. That included 11 patients at Cody Regional Health and one at Powell Valley Hospital.
“As expected, hospitalization and death rates are declining in response to active case rates declining over several weeks,” Park County Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin had written in a Dec. 9 Facebook post. “However, wastewater testing and active cases are trending up again (predicting an increase in hospitalizations).”
The Department of Health also announced this week that the deaths of three Park County residents — two women and one man — have been tied to COVID-19. Two of the deaths occurred in November, while one of the people died earlier this month. All were 65 or older and two had health conditions that put them at greater risk of severe illness.
There have now been 111 deaths among Park County residents, amid 5,607 confirmed and probable cases that have been logged since March 2020.
Dr. Billin said Wednesday that getting vaccinated is a safe and effective way to reduce the risk of becoming infected with or transmitting COVID-19.
“A small child can still die in a car crash even if they are in a car seat,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “However, we always put small children in car seats, because infant car seats significantly reduce the risk of injury or death.”
He shared a German study indicating that unvaccinated people were three times more likely to pass on COVID than vaccinated people who develop so-called breakthrough cases and said most breakthrough infections are mild.
A total of 12,322 Park County residents were fully vaccinated as of Monday.
