After submitting a request to the state to allow bars and restaurants to open at half capacity, Campbell County has had to put that on hold.
On Wednesday, May 6, the 16th case of the coronavirus was confirmed in Campbell County. The newest case is a teenage woman who is quarantined at home. However, due to her job as an essential worker, she had close contact with around 80 people, many of whom are considered high-risk, said Campbell County Public Health Executive Director Jane Glaser.
"What's unique with this one is that number of contacts that this case had. We've had other cases where they had contacts in the 30's," she said. "If any of those contacts turn out positives, then we're going to have a mushroom effect of how many contacts we could have from this one case."
As of Thursday evening, Glaser said they have tested all of those people, but State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist sent a letter to the County Commission.
"At this moment, she needed to take a pause on our variance request and make sure that we weren't going to have a really large outbreak here," she said.
"Her email stated, 'I am, in general, supportive of the provisions in the orders, but think that we need more time to understand the current situation before they get signed,'" according to a press release from Campbell County.
The county's variance request aimed at opening restaurants and bars at 50 percent capacity. It also included stipulations for operating and included that staff would need to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and establishments would have to close by 11:30 pm.
"No one wants to be in this position, trying to balance a public health strategy and an economic health strategy. But we will continue working hard to address the needs of the whole community," said Campbell County Commission Board Chairman DG Reardon.
Glaser said they should know the test results soon.
The last two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county have not been related to other known cases, she said.
"Then that's when you come to the conclusion that it's a community acquired case and that is a concern because we don't really have a way to limit that because we don't know who we're limiting," Glaser said.
She said public health is continuing to remind residents to social distance, run all errands in one day instead of multiple days a week, limit face-to-face contact, wearing a mask, limiting gatherings, and staying home if sick.
She added that if people are headed outdoors or on a walk in the neighborhood, wearing a mask isn't required.
"But again, say you're walking your dog and you run into someone you know and you want to visit for a minute, just make sure you keep a social distance between you," Glaser said.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Catherine Wheeler, at cwheel11@uwyo.edu.
