When it comes to tracking how COVID-19 is mutating, the state of Wyoming is leading the nation in an important and helpful way.
The state public health lab decided to invest in the ability to sequence virus variants years ago. Sequencing finds the genetic code of the virus which can help tell us a lot about it.
Before the pandemic, it was used to sequence E. Coli, tuberculosis and other viruses. State Public Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist said that's because finding out the entire genetic sequence of any virus is helpful for a number of reasons.
"To determine whether viruses are similar to each other," said Harrist. "That helps us from an epidemiological standpoint, to know whether cases, for example, might be related to each other."
Plus it can indicate whether there's been any changes to how transmissible or severe a virus is. Harrist said it was through the genetic sequencing of COVID-19, that the state determined that the delta variant is the most prevalent strain in Wyoming.
"We're seeing and detecting through this genomic sequencing is changes in the virus that are leading to changes in function that are concerning, because they're more easily spread, or they have resistance to some of the treatments we've developed," she said.
So far, the lab has been testing one out of every five COVID-19 tests. That's a little over 19 percent of cases that have been sequenced and twice as much as any other state.
"The best tool that we have, and the way that we're going to be successful in, in preventing as much of a resurgence of this virus as we saw last fall, is for as many people to get vaccinated as possible," said Harrist
She acknowledged not everyone can get vaccinated like children or people with certain health conditions. So Harrist said the more people vaccinated actually helps protect those that can't.
