The Wyoming Department of Health announced two new confirmed COVID-19 related deaths on Monday, May 18. An older man died in late March, and an older woman died in late April. They both died in Colorado, though both individuals were permanent residents of Laramie and Carbon counties respectively.
Wyoming Department of Health's Kim Deti said it's standard protocol across the nation to track deaths and cases by their permanent residence.
"When a death occurs in another state, sometimes there can be delays before that information reaches us. And that's what occurred in this case," said Deti.
Deti said this protocol addresses all kinds of deaths. She said the state goes by how the person died on the death certificate.
"If the coroner or the attending physicians have, what they call medical certifier, if they believe that COVID-19 in this case, either directly caused or contributed to someone's death and they list that on the on the death certificate, then we're going to count it as a COVID-related death," she said.
Deti said that this is the same process the state has followed for many years with influenza-related deaths. There are now 10 COVID-19 related deaths in Wyoming as of Monday afternoon.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Kamila Kudelska, at kkudelsk@uwyo.edu.
