Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
SHERIDAN (WNE) — The national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
On April 10, President Joe Biden signed a Republican-led resolution that brought an end to the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic; Wyoming’s lone representative in the U.S. House, Harriet Hageman, was a co-sponsor of the resolution. The signing comes just more than three years after the national emergency was declared.
The administration had previously announced it would allow the national emergency to expire May 11; the resolution merely accelerated the process.
A statewide mask mandate was put into place in December 2020 and was lifted March 16, 2021. Gov. Mark Gordon cited a declining number of COVID-19 cases at the time as the reason for lifting the mask mandate.
Mayor Rich Bridger said Sheridan’s mitigation efforts were sensible.
Bridger said there wasn’t an enforcement policy in place for the mask mandates, rather, the city encouraged residents to wear face masks.
He also said he viewed the pandemic as more of a blip on the radar for Sheridan.
As quickly as Sheridan may have returned to business as usual, Bridger said the pandemic was not without its hardships, especially among those working in the service industry as businesses shut down.
McRae said Sheridan’s tourism industry thrived during the pandemic because the city opened up and lifted COVID-related restrictions earlier than other parts of the nation.
There have been 2,256 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wyoming this year and 144,793 since 2020. There have been 2,023 deaths related to COVID-19 since 2020 and 47 this year.