COVID-19 UPDATE: Meetings to resume at detention center

WORLAND — The Washakie County Sheriff’s Office will be opening up its visitation and meetings at the Sheriff’s Office on Monday, Sept. 21.

This will include NA, AA, mental health counseling, religious services. Residents are asked to contact the jail at 347-2242 for further details or questions.

Visitors to the detention floor will be required to wear mask(s) and gloves while on the Detention floor. If you do not comply with the protective gear requirements, you will not be allowed on the floor. There will be no exceptions to this requirement.

Additionally, they ask if you are sick, coughing, have a fever or not feeling well, do not come to the jail.

At the Washakie County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15, Washakie County Sheriff Steve Rakness and Washakie County Ambulance Director Luke Sypherd came before the County Commission to discuss the process of how to submit grant applications for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) funding to the Office of State Land and Investment (OSLI) that would then be passed on to the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) for their meeting on Oct. 1.

The ambulance department submitted multiple applications for different items, as there is a possibility one may be rejected and Sypherd was concerned the whole application would be rejected should all the items be grouped together.

The sheriff’s department submitted one for wages and hazard pay, the ambulance department submitted for wages and hazard pay along with funds for a potential new ambulance, two ventilators and for a new HVAC system in the new ambulance building.

Also during the commissioners meeting, Washakie County Public Health Nurse Manager Amanda Heinemeyer reported that they are starting to get surveillance testing out to businesses that signed up. Heinemeyer said they are working on drive-thru flu clinics for adults once flu season starts up in order to limit traffic into buildings.

Heinemeyer also said that they are beginning to receive vaccine information on how to distribute the vaccine once it is available, and to her understanding it will be rolled out like the H1N1 vaccine and a certain allotment will be shipped out each week and distributed based on recommendations that are expected to be given by the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Washakie County School District No. 1 Business Manager Jack Stott reported that there are no students out on state-ordered quarantine. The district as of Tuesday was 16 days COVID-19 free, Stott said.

Washakie County’s last lab-confirmed case came on Sunday, Sept. 6. There are currently three active lab-confirmed cases in the county, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.

The county has had a total of 103 since the pandemic was declared in the early spring. There have been 42 statewide deaths, six in Washakie County, all related to the outbreak at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, all in the 70 and older age category.

Of the three active cases, two are in the 50-59 age category. The third, according to the WDH county dashboard, is of unknown age.