Public nurse stresses social distance

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
As the community prepares for the 2020 Weston County Fair while an influx of tourists is passing through the area, Lori Bickford, county public health nurse, stresses that social distancing is important in preventing the spread of COVID-19. 
“The most important thing, but not the only thing, is the 6-feet distancing,” Bickford said. “That’s what keeps someone from being considered a contact in an investigation. That’s what puts you on quarantine for 14 days.” 
According to Bickford, social distancing, wearing a mask and frequent hand washing are the only infection control measures currently available to prevent the spread of the disease. 
“They used similar distancing techniques in ancient times. They even figured it out back then, that this is how you contain a disease,” Bickford said. 
The more people that practice social distancing, the better, she said. 
“What we don’t want is for a positive person to end up having a great deal of contacts,” Bickford said. “In Uinta County, there were like 200 contacts involved in one positive case. We want to keep the circle small. We don’t want to have a popup like that.”
The kickoff for the 2020 fair comes two weeks after the county received its first positive case in a resident that can be properly verified. To date, the Wyoming Department of Health says that Weston County has three active cases and a total of 463 tests have been performed in the county. 
According to the department’s website, the positive results make up 0.43% of the total testing in the county. Further, the website reports that this is the lowest percentage of positives per tests conducted in the state. 
Despite the seemingly low rate of the disease in the community, the state has seen positive cases continue to climb with a record 62 positive cases announced on July 20. At the same time, the health department is reporting a total of 513 active cases in the state, meaning that 1,336 residents have recovered. 
As of July 20, Wyoming has reported 1,790 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a hospitalization rate of 8.1% and 24 deaths of people who tested positive for the disease. A total of 61,032 tests have been performed statewide on a total of 43,605 residents.