Dr. Aaron Billin

Another week brought more cases of COVID-19 to Park County.

As of Wednesday, there were 133 people with confirmed and probable cases of the disease in Park County, according to Wyoming Department of Health data. That’s up from 118 active cases a week earlier and 46 such cases on Aug. 4.

Meanwhile, a total of 13 people were hospitalized with the disease at Park County hospitals on Wednesday, with eight patients at Cody Regional Health and another five at Powell Valley Healthcare. That was the same number of hospitalizations as a week earlier and down from Sunday, when 17 people were hospitalized with the disease at the Powell and Cody hospitals, tying the high-water mark for the pandemic.

The more infectious Delta variant of the novel coronavirus is being blamed for the surge. Although only two cases of the variant have been confirmed in Park County to date, County Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin said that’s because healthcare providers are sending very few tests to the State Health Lab in Cheyenne for genetic sequencing.

“We are reasonably certain that the Delta variant is the predominant strain of the virus in Park County and Wyoming at this time,” Bilin said.

With Wyoming’s elected officials generally eschewing more mandates, public health officials have been continuing to encourage vaccinations as the most effective way to get protection from COVID-19. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration issued full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine for those 16 and older, though use of the vaccine for those 12-15 and a third dose being suggested for immunocompromised individuals remain under emergency use authorization (EUA).

As of Monday, 37.3% of Park County’s population — or 11,063 residents — was fully immunized, according to state data, including 45.7% of adults. The data suggests another 1,784 local residents became immunized within the prior week.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, there have been 3,309 lab-confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Park County, with 37 deaths tied to the disease.

Across Wyoming, there have been more than 72,500 cases, with 835 deaths.

The number of active coronavirus cases in the state grew beyond the 3,000 level on Wednesday for the first time since mid-December, with 3,372 active cases.

The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Wyoming grew to 174 on Wednesday, with 40 patients at Casper’s Wyoming Medical Center and 34 at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

(The Wyoming News Exchange contributed to this report.)