COVID-Related Death Total Goes Up With Sweetwater County Death

The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is announcing the death of a Sweetwater County man identified previously as one of the state's laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The older man had health conditions known to put patients at higher risk of serious illness related to COVID-19 and had been hospitalized.

Among Wyoming residents, there have now been 22 coronavirus-related deaths, 1,545 lab-confirmed cases and 359 probable cases reported.

Whether Wyoming resident deaths are added to the state's coronavirus-related death total is based on official death certificate information. Death certificates reflect whether COVID-19 caused or contributed to the person's death according to medical opinion. If the disease neither caused nor contributed to the person's death, that person's death is not reflected in Wyoming's count of coronavirus-related of deaths even if the person is known to be positive for the virus.

Disease symptoms may appear 2 to 14 days after virus exposure and include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell. COVID-19 can be transmitted by infected people who aren't experiencing symptoms.

WDH recommendations meant to slow and limit transmission of the virus include:

• Staying home from work and away from others when ill unless medical care is needed

• Maintaining physical distancing of 6 feet whenever practical

• Wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where physical distancing is not reasonable

For more information about COVID-19, visit: https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/infectious-disease-epidemiology-unit/disease/novel-coronavirus/.