SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center held a press conference on Wednesday morning, moderated by Public Information Officer Jason Mower.

Sweetwater County Public Health Officer, Dr. Jean Stachon, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County Incident Commander, Kim White, and Castle Rock Medical Center CEO, Bailee Dockter, addressed the media and answered questions.

The full press conference has been included below:

There have been two positive cases found in Sweetwater County since testing was made available. Dr. Jean Stachon confirmed that the two cases were in contact with each other at a group gathering.

“Our first two cases are related in terms of that they had contact with each other,” Dr. Stachon said. “They are not in the same household, but they know each other and they had been at this gathering together.”

Since the confirmation of those cases, both state and local officials have worked closely to track down others who have had contact with the patients. Dr. Stachon confirmed that some of the known contacts who might be infected are family, friends and coworkers.

From those discovered contacts, COVID-19 testing is being done on numerous people at the second patient’s workplace and an investigation into one daycare is currently taking place. The daycare has since been closed for three weeks.

Most individuals being dealt with are in Green River, however, there are a handful in Rock Springs. There is no hard number on potential infected contacts.

“People who have had some contact have been told to stay home and self-monitor,” Dr. Stachon said. “A number of them have been tested.”

Exponential Spread

Dr. Stachon expressed her concern about exponential spread. While officials try to contain the cluster in Sweetwater County, she expects more positive cases to begin turning up.

“We have two cases here in the county identified, but I’m sure we have easily 50 or more cases unidentified,” Dr. Stachon said.

“We’re not going to be able to depend on clinical interventions at this point because they’re just not out there,” Dr. Stachon said. “How we’re going to save ourselves and others in our community is by old-fashioned public health measures of [social] distancing, six-feet apart, social gatherings, hand washing…”

Dr. Stachon said that the average infected person infects 2 to 2.5 people and that spread of the virus can occur rapidly.

According to Dr. Stachon, the peak of the virus in Sweetwater County is expected to be in two months.

“Life for the next months ahead will never be the same,” Dr. Stachon said. “We’re in this for the long haul.”

The two positive cases in Green River serve as a good example of exponential spread. Dr. Stachon pleaded for the public to make a difference by staying home and practicing social distancing.

“Don’t lessen the importance and become complacent,” Dr. Stachon said. “We still have time to make a difference in the spread. Think of how many people these two people have been in contact with and then as it spreads out, how many people they have been in contact with.”

Clarifying COVID-19 Testing

Testing for COVID-19 is still a problem at hand that many local health officials are dealing with.

According to Dr. Stachon, directions and supplies for testing was originally done through the state health department. The state health department gave strict guidelines for who could be tested. Among those guidelines was to test for influenza first in order to save COVID-19 supplies. If the influenza test came back negative, a rapid-fire panel test was administered to check for other illnesses. such as the common cold. If both tests came back negative, a COVID-19 test was then initiated.

Dr. Stachon also added that the COVID-19 test could be ordered at any point in time at the discretion of the provider.

“That might not have been fully explained to providers and understood by people getting testing,” Dr. Stachon said. “That’s what the state recommended, however, you could’ve just checked for COVID-19, but at that time they were not recommending it.”

According to Dr. Stachon, in the beginning, COVID-19 tests may not have even been sent if the influenza or rapid-fire panel tests came back positive.

Fast forward to today, testing supplies are still very limited, but recommendations have changed.

Kim White said that Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County is loosening some of the guidelines on who they will test in regards to COVID-19 testing and sending them to private labs. They have eliminated the requirement for influenza and rapid-fire panel tests and are testing COVID-19 directly.

Castle Rock Medical Center, which is now sending COVID-19 tests to the state lab, is following the state health departments testing guidelines which will continue to funnel tests through health care providers and emergency medical services.

Lost Testing

White confirmed that the hospital did have some COVID-19 tests that were recently rejected by the state lab.

A total of 59 tests were sent to the state lab for testing, but had been re-routed due to storms and mistakenly went to Kentucky by the courier. By the time the tests reached Cheyenne, they were no longer valid.

“One of the things with the virus panels is that they have to stay frozen,” White said. “It had taken so long for them to get there that they were no longer valid.”

White said that all 59 people were contacted and invited back for another test. As of Wednesday morning, only 27 of the 59 people had come in for testing. Some of the others had regained their health and no longer required testing.